Monthly Archives: July 2024

‘Politics is about sacredness’ – overlapping moral orbits

Mediation, Musings, Stories, , , ,

Fables were part of the moral fabric when I was growing up. Perhaps yours as well. Especially some of Aesop’s Fables. (Yet, I was suprised that this was not the case for many of my middle school students, when a public school teacher.)

There’s one fable, in particular, which social psychologist Jonathan Haidt discussed in a 2012 interview (noted below) about his latest book (at that time): Aesop’s The Ant and the Grasshopper.

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Happiness pension plan – a pillared formula?

Mediation, Musings, , ,

This article (below) discusses happiness as a direction, and the elements of that state of mind. And, yes, there’s a science of happiness. And a “happiness pension plan.”

Yet, in such direction, recall our mantra:

What’s the good news about habits? They’re hard to break.
What’s the bad news about habits? They’re hard to break.

There’s also a question of social engineering. Can “villains” (and their minions) be happy? – Tick off Brooks’ elements of happiness. Might autocrats exploit Brooks’ formula?

No yellow-brick-road, eh.

• Big Think > “There is a formula for happiness — but it’s highly misunderstood” by Arthur C. Brooks [note his Wiki bibliography] (7′ video with transcript) – “Happiness is NOT about feelings.”

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the BIG picture – from beginning of time

Musings, ,

Like a mandala, here’s an interesting visualization … a 13.8 billion year chronicle.

• NASA > APOD > “Time Spiral” – Illustration Credit: Pablo Carlos Budassi via Wikipedia (9 August 2020)

Explanation (quoted): What’s happened since the universe started? The time spiral shown here features a few notable highlights.

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