There are a few golden principles about what it means to live an honest and happy life that I would hope to fully illuminate for my children. Here is one, via the epic Ayn Rand and her FAT book, Atlas Shrugged: Happiness is not to be achieved at the command of emotional whims. Happiness is not the satisfaction of whatever irrational wishes you might blindly attempt to indulge. Happiness is a state of non-contradictory joy - a joy without penalty or guilt, a joy that does not clash with any of your values and does not work for your own destruction, not the joy of escaping from your mind, but of using your minds fullest power, not the joy of faking reality, but of achieving values that are real. Just as I support my life, neither by robbery nor alms, but by my own effort, so I do not seek to derive my happiness from the injury or favor of others, but earn it by my own achievement. Just as I do not consider the pleasure of others as the goal of my life, so I do not consider my pleasure as the goal of the lives of others. Just as there are no contradictions in my values and no conflicts among my desires - so there are no victims and no conflicts of interest among rational men, men who do not desire the unearned and do not view one another with a cannibals lust, men who neither make sacrifices nor accept them. I would have my children know that they will need help from time to time but, largely, the Universe will give them pretty much what they work for. In life there is a difference between a worthy sacrifice and a sacrifice that is less worthy or not at all productive to your souls happiness.
Posted on: Wed, 21 Jan 2015 22:53:05 +0000
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