Power

That’s the question that Ralph Waldo Emerson posed in his book, The Conduct of Life. He wrote, “The question of the times resolved itself into a practical question of the conduct of life. How shall I live? We are incompetent to solve the times” (943, Note: These quotes are taken from Emerson: Essays and Lectures. You can read this book online here.). And what was his answer? That we are to do good, to make a contribution.

The Goal
Emerson believed that we all had an obligation not merely to do something good for ourselves but to do something that would make a significant difference in the world. “Every man is a consumer, and ought to be a producer. He fails to make his place good in the world, unless he not only pays his debt, but also adds something to the common wealth” (989). Each person must increase his talents not merely bury the one they have in the ground.

The Obstacles
In seeking to do good, there are numerous obstacles. There is fate. Fate is any natural limit we encounter. In includes everything from the fact that we live on earth to the fact that we have five fingers. Everything that defines us limits us. Fate inevitably brings suffering and death.

These limitations are not an unmitigated evil. “In front of these sinister facts, the first lesson of history is the good of evil. Good is a good doctor, but Bad is sometimes a better” (1083). “The frost which kills the harvest of a year, saves the harvests of a century, by destroying the weevil or the locust” (1084). It is these challenges that give us opportunity to rise to greater heights. “We acquire the strength we have overcome. Without war, no soldier, without enemies, no hero” (1084). Steam always seemed to cause a problem by lifting houses and pots. Here was what Watt and Fulton saw: “Could he lift pots and roofs and houses so handily? He was the workman they were in search of” (959). Continue reading “How Shall I Live? I Can’t Solve the Issues of Our Time”

When you think about it, everything we do aims at one thing: happiness. Many things can make us happy to some degree, but we are always looking for that which will truly satisfy us. We want something that will give a lasting joy and peace that leaves no regret.

In spite of the fact that happiness is the goal, happiness generally eludes us. We pour our energy into a variety of things, hoping they will make us happy, but they always disappoint. In the United States, people in the tens of millions turn to anxiety and depression medication to help them cope with life. I am not judging those who choose to do that (it’s sometimes necessary, in my view). I merely point this out to demonstrate that happiness seems to elude us.

So, what is it that makes us truly happy? In spite of the fact that happiness is what we want, it’s surprising how little time we actually spend thinking about it. Ancient philosophers spent a lot of time thinking about this question. They did not want to pursue happiness haphazardly. They wanted to know what would really make people happy and how.

The Christian theologian and philosopher Thomas Aquinas summarized this ancient thought in his famous book, Summa Theologica, or Summary of Theology. In the second section of the first part of the work, in the second question (yeah, it’s not exactly what we could a “summary”), he discusses the question, what makes people happy? Aquinas helps us think about this question by first helping us see where we will not find happiness. Here’s what he says.

1. We won’t find happiness in money. Why? Because we seek money in order to be able to get something else. If we seek money to purchase something else, then money cannot be that which would make us happy. To discover what happiness is, we would have to ask, what do we want to do with the money? What do we think that it buys us? Continue reading “What Will Make Us Truly Happy?”

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