Thursday, April 17, 2008

Live Long, Be Happy

The older people got, the more likely they were to report being happy...

Here is a study I can get behind, although I don't think it was all that necessary to actually do a study on this.

Just from my own life, I can tell ya, age brings happiness.
It's not so much that you actually attain happiness, and I'm not saying that I have.
Or that one reaches some mythical goal that suddenly changes the world for them.
In my case, and I think with anybody else if they stop to think about it, you come to the realization that most of life's bullshit is just bullshit, and refuse to let it ruin your life anymore.

6 comments:

DJRainDog said...

Actually, Gino, I'm getting angrier and more violent as I get older. Is it a bell-curve?

Jade said...

:) So it's not that you are happy, it's that you just don't care anymore?

Gino said...

DJ:hmm, maybe. i didnt hit this turning point til about 40.

jade:i think i'm in a holding pattern. not happy, but just rolling with it.

tully said...

This is perfectly consonant with Platonism. Happiness comes from understanding what is real (Forms) and what is not real and living life in reaction to reality rather than the false shadows of illusion and opinion. Essentially, Plato's ethics of ignoring were based on the Heracleitian-inspired metaphysics of recognizing bullshit, and it follows that, if only by accident, increased exposure to life will bring one more to the realization that most of what we are expected to live according to is bullshit.

Gino said...

LC: no bullshit there.

Mr. D said...

Yep. It's always liberating to be able to call things what they are. And being able to call things what they are makes me happy.

And good for Little Cicero that he figured that out so early. It takes most of us a long time.