On to the next thing - I read a quote from Michael J. Fox: "My happiness grows in direct proportion to my acceptance, and in inverse proportion to my expectations."
I think that if anyone can deal with what Michael J. Fox does on a daily basis and state that then it carries a lot of weight with me. From my own personal experience "acceptance" is a big part of happiness.
--Roberta
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Here’s some info on the speakers. Note that although the topic was centred on The Happiness Project, Jordan spoke twice as much as Gretchen.
| Paul Kennedy,CBC Ideas Host | 11% |
| Frank Faulk,CBC Documentarian | 11% |
| Gretchen Rubin,“The Happiness Project” | 17% |
| Todd Kashdan,“Designing Positive Psychology” | 20% |
| Jordan B. Peterson,“Maps of Meaning” | 33% |
| Daniel Polish, “Talking About God” | 11% |
This CBC documentary spoke much about faith, religion, and morality, but as Jordan spoke “As soon as you start to talk about the deepest meanings of life, the language that is most appropriate is immediately religious.” (29min)
Where the three academics spoke against The Happiness Project, I don’t think they successfully spoke against Gretchen Rubin’s intentions; everyone was looking for a more fulfilling and meaningful life compared to a mundane one.
- Gretchen Rubin says that (at about 15min) that she is going to decide what constitutes happiness for herself and how well she is doing. That’s not objective; there can be massive blind-spots. Christianity has safeguards against people fooling themselves in their virtue. What are some examples and do they still work in the modern Church? Do you see parallels to them in THP or Self-help movements?
- How is The Happiness Project (THP) like a Christian life of discipleship? How isn’t it?
- THP emphasised greater morality, happiness, relationships, kindness, and the freedom to recover from setbacks. That sounds a lot like Christian life.
- The Self-help movement spends a lot of time looking for happiness, but apparently not finding it (otherwise they wouldn’t keep looking). Is that a fair criticism? What if the same criticism is applied to the modern Church?
- “Some people will tell you that the purpose of life is to be happy and those people are idiots” (22min) Is this comment fair?
- Alexander Solzhenitsyn “Happiness is something that's done in by the first harsh blow that reality deals you.”