Jon - gotta respectfully disaggree with your assertions that "perhaps
pursuit of happiness in this day and age is immoral." and "the truth
is, we *shouldn't* be happy in today's world. At least, those who love
humanity shouldn't be happy."
I love humanity. Do I show this love all the time? No, I'm human
and at times I mess up or lose touch with that love (for me, when one
really is in touch with their love for humanity - they're tapping into
DQ) Does the fact that somewhere people are suffering make it wrong
for me to be happy? I don't think so. Because even though I love
humanity, I also still suffer. It's part of life. THERE WILL ALWAYS
BE SUFFERING IN THIS WORLD. The reason why I say this is because for
one thing to exist, the opposite must also exist. For love or joy or
happiness (or whatever you see as the opposite of suffering) to exist
- there must be suffering. We can not know light without dark. Or
Good without Bad. You can't have a coin with one side.
I didn't see the movie you mentioned but it seems to me that the dad
could have seen the two people chatting and having a good time as a
sign that joy in life does exist even though HE may not be able to
feel it at the time. Someone once told me that life isn't about the
circumstances, but our attitude towards those circumstances.
Diverging slightly, even if what you want is not an absence of
suffering (which, again, I don't think can happen unless we give up
happiness as well) the way to get there is not by focuing on what's
wrong. One has to look to what one wants, and work towards that (not
'against' what they 'don't want') You view that to rid the world of
all its evils, we need to have our kids see the awful place it is will
only perpetutate the problem. To use a bicycling analogy - when one
sees a pothole in the road and wants to avoid it - they do not look at
the pothole. Doing so has them head straight for the pothole.
Of course, the bike rider, in looking to where they want to go, has
to be aware of the hazards in the road - but focuing on the hazard
only brings us to the hazard. Likewise, I'm not saying we walk around
with blinders on or pretend that there are no problems in the world,
but to realize that everything in life happens as a result of choices
people make. And the choices are reflected by their vision ("where
were they looking?")
Sorry, if I got carried away with this one. The topic of "vision" is
one I hold dear.
Shalom
David Lind
Trickster@postmark.net
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