HAPPINESS

Last Monday after issuing my Newsletter from Pujiltik and buying fruit at the market I was hiking up the dirt trail to 28 de Junio, the sunlight stinging and the heat heavy. A fellow stepped from a sliver of shade below a sugarcane wall, proposing to accompany me awhile just to chat.

He'd spent some time harvesting tomatoes in Florida so he knew a bit about the US and he came up with a thought I've often played with: That, relatively speaking, life is much harder here but somehow people here, on the average, seem happier than up there. To make his point he told me how delicious it'd be when he reached home in a few minutes and could sit beneath a shadetree with his shirt unbuttoned enjoying a few breezes and, since it was Easter Week, maybe he'd even splurge and split a beer with his brother-in-law.

"And some tortillas and some chili, ¡Chiiiiiin-GA... !" he said with an ain't-life-wonderful tone of voice.

The fellow reminded me that with regard to the concept of "happiness" humans can be very elastic. It may be a good time to keep this in mind because, from what I hear on BBC Shortwave, economic conditions up North are squeezing many people who may have bought into the notion that "money + possessions = happiness." Among some, a happiness crisis may be pending up there.

For my part, my own often-repeated formula for long-term "happiness," is: Try to live in harmony with the most obvious paradigms apparent in Nature.

My own take on "What Nature Teaches" boils down to these uncomplicated suggestions:

That's what I see plants and animals everywhere doing; those are basic principles for beautifully sustainable, evolving life and, therefore, happiness.