Happiness in a Changing Economy

Joseph Campbell formulated what became his most quoted dictum, "Follow your bliss" in the decade before his death. Join this conversation to explore this idea and share stories.

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CarmelaBear
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Happiness in a Changing Economy

Post by CarmelaBear »

College graduates are either underemployed or unemployed in large numbers these days. Both Professor Campbell and folks like me had experience with economic changes that turn expectations around. It challenges our resolve to protect our happiness at every turn.

Mythology gives us the best clues, and much of it comes to us through the stories delivered with great expertise and power by the major media. These stories, for technical reasons and logistics, require that the characters live like the 1%, though they are supposed to be blue collar or reality destitute. We see workers living way above their means, with flimsy explanations for their giant homes and designer wardrobe. Reality stars dress and act like poor country folk while taking home millions in personal income. Stories require this to advance the plot and serve both the process and the designing of sets.

We expect to live well on less, and many of us manage to do just that. We maintain our lives to maximize satisfaction and a sense of belonging and importance in spite of our circumstances.

It boggles the mind.

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Once in a while a door opens, and let's in the future. --- Graham Greene

CarmelaBear
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Post by CarmelaBear »

This is important. Joseph Campbell was a college professor. It was one of his students who asked for personal career advice, and received the famous words of wisdom, "Follow your bliss". Bliss is about individual experience.

Yes, he delved deeply into the more abstract ramifications of the general topic during the course of his studies, but the Campbell notion of bliss is essentially about you and me. It does not follow Levantian text. It is not about obedience to the learned professor's great teaching. It is about the hero's own passage through a life of real questing, searching for a way that actually feels healthy and positive and joyful.

Economists caution us to remember that when a basketball professional enters a room, the average height goes artificially up. Now that the very rich are getting richer, the rest of us are doing less well. This is especially true in India and China, where poverty is a greater problem in a globalized economy, where the rich are getting much richer. It does matter, and not only to those, like me, who have the gall to tell their own version of their own life story, warts and all. It matters to the community and to society and to humanity.

Poverty in my home state of New Mexico increases as the wealthy pour in to buy cheap labor and laugh at "characters" like me. Over 50% of New Mexicans are currently working as family and friend caregivers right now. They do it out of love, for free or for peanuts. They include a Congresswoman, (Michelle Lujan-Griffin, our hero!), former CEO 's and public officials, the high and mighty as well as the meak and humble. It is a rough job, where gratitude wears thin, respite is rare and the vision of bliss becomes a bit blurred.

~
Once in a while a door opens, and let's in the future. --- Graham Greene

CarmelaBear
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Post by CarmelaBear »

Image

Bill Moyers: How to Spot Income Inequality from Space

--Count the Trees


http://billmoyers.com/2012/06/10/how-to ... the-trees/

~
Once in a while a door opens, and let's in the future. --- Graham Greene

CarmelaBear
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Post by CarmelaBear »

I'm probably happier than most rich people, because of family, friends and education. Given that I do enjoy more bliss than the average bear, I am acutely aware of the challenge presented by the idea that the world does not have meaning, and it is simply here to be enjoyed.

When something within one's sphere of influence can be changed for the better at the expense of our momentary "enjoyment", we actually and paradoxically experience a satisfaction and a spark of pride that makes the sacrifice worthwhile.

There is always the adventure. Somehow, we can turn anything into bliss. Anything. It's like turning a knob on a door. One simple movement makes the magic happen.

Why do I even bother with this subject? It goes round and round like a toy top, spinning until it wobbles and comes to a cold, hard stop.

Image
Once in a while a door opens, and let's in the future. --- Graham Greene

Andreas
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Post by Andreas »

Very interesting photo and research, Carmela, I will share it with my friends. That being said I can assure you that in Greece I live in a region that is flooded by trees and I am struggling to get by these days.
“To live is enough.” ― Shunryu Suzuki

CarmelaBear
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Post by CarmelaBear »

Yeah, Andreas. I hear you. The academic generalizations are useful, but they miss the particulars of specific situations.

Albuquerque's trees started to dry up during the drought, and only the areas with money could keep them watered. You could tell just by looking at the trees whether folks were using water to keep the trees going.

We also have our natural "bosque" of trees next to the river, and it is always in danger when folks either want to "develop" the area (take down trees and add gravel trails) or come close to burning it down when people use the area for camping out.

In a desert, especially during a drought, trees are the first greenery to show signs of distress, no matter how much money people have or don't have. Water is such a scarce resource that the trees can tell you a lot about a neighborhood or a park. The biggest, oldest, most drought-resistant trees are near some of the poorest, oldest parts of the city. The prettiest and fullest trees are found in both the rich and the more rural areas. Rich and rural means horse stables and acres of crops. Poor and rural means lots of dry dirt and scattered small gardens.

The environmentally conscious rich folk use more gravel and cactus and desert plants in their gardens to conserve water. In a desert, it is hard for anyone to keep trees alive and green.

In areas along the coastlines and rivers, trees are everywhere.
Once in a while a door opens, and let's in the future. --- Graham Greene

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