Curiosity, Money, Happiness
May 2nd, 2008One of the things that I do have, is a very curious nature.
I’ll wake up one morning, and go, “Oh, I don’t know anything at all about ‘X,’ how can I find out or learn about ‘X’ (short of going and getting a degree on the subject).”
And bless the Internet, because, if I feel like it, I can learn a whole lot about a whole lot of stuff, and it’s really fun for me.
One of the things that I’ve decided that I know “nada” about is business and finance, and it’s high time I learned something about the subject. (Maybe it’s Mr. Karp coming to town. Maybe it’s the continuous municipal mess so many cities and towns, including Newburyport, find ourselves in. Whatever it is, I got real curious.)
So I have several neophyte sources that I go to, Yahoo Finance, MarketWatch and the Huffington Post. They all have links to various articles on various subjects on the subject.
People get MBA’s in this stuff, so (yes, I know) without an MBA I’ll be in kindergarten on this subject for the rest of my life, the “fluff” of Yahoo Finance sound-bites being my teacher.
BUT, I’ve come across a Yahoo Finance person that I really like a lot–Laura Rowley, who writes articles on how money affects people psychologically. And her latest article “Money & Happiness” I like a lot, a whole lot.
“The study (you’ll have to read the article) underscores the importance of separating temporary euphoria from genuine happiness. I subscribe to Aristotle’s notion of eudaimonia — which is translated from the Greek as “happiness,” but is probably closer to the word “flourishing.” And long-term flourishing requires discipline, persistence, hard work, faith, and, most important, pursuing goals that are close to your heart and based on your personal gifts.
This isn’t the smiley-face, instant-gratification kind of “happiness” that popular culture promotes. As Thomas Carlyle once said, ‘There is something higher than happiness, and that is blessedness.’ ”
And after reading that again, maybe it’s my frustration with our “Paris Hilton world” (see lots of other posts). And in reading this, it’s nice to see happiness equated with “discipline,” faith,” “persistence” and “blessedness.”
Love that. Love that a lot.
Mary Eaton
Newburyport