I’m not a man given to outward expressions of sentiment toward my fellows normally, though I am someone that recognises how friendships make our lives worthwhile. For me it’s the point of, the meaning in, life itself.

Many people draw false meaning, attach themselves to a purpose of their existence whereby they equate the accumulation of things such as money, power, physical structures or the land they sit upon, mastery over a task, legacy concerning their family name, or pride in being part of something, as the primary objective of their short time on this planet. I say bullshit to most of that simply because if, in any measurable way, the achieving of these goals does not increase happiness, in the absence of creating unhappiness in equal measure, then they are inequality itself, and I can’t have that.

Picture the scene…. A group of people get together to eat and enjoy music, the meat was hunted and cooked over a fire, that fire made by the labour of those there gathered. A musician plays a guitar and someone else sings. The guitar was made by a luthier who was well paid for his task, it is a thing of beauty and unique. The meat is a pig raised organically for this purpose, it would have never lived had it not been food. The salad that accompanies it is abundant and the firewood fallen branches. Each person is fed and entertained and goes home happy. The setting is left unmolested and everything that was consumed will be replaced. In this scenario there is nobody left unhappy, it is without a down side in Epicurean terms, and that’s what I am on about. (the pig is arguable).

There are things of value that have drawbacks, situations where one person is made happier or wealthier by someone else’s loss. Power is power over someone who lacks it, It is not power over a thing because things have no agency, the power that controls a thing and it’s use is an exclusionary power over other people, where they don’t get to use what they might need or enjoy. Power expressed is exploitation, the ability to govern the lives of others so that they do not reap the full benefits of their efforts, the ability to inhibit someone from expressing their will and realising their goals. Often falsely thought to be an enabling factor in happiness, but is this so if we examine it closely? There is a burden to power, the maintenance of it is never easy, “heavy hangs the crown upon the head of the king” and so on. Have you actually ever met a powerful person that was truly happy, or anyone for whom the urge to accumulate things is ever sated? I haven’t yet.

Drinking up to a point has happiness in it as a pass time, but at drink three or four it may gain the downsides. Taking the edge off is good, becoming a drunken nuisance is not. Relaxing with a few drinks doesn’t leave the next day a washout, but drinking to excess ruins tomorrow and may have pains involved. Eating fine foods with high calorific value has a pleasing effect on the pleasure centres of the mind, but leads to increased weight and sluggishness. Excess is the enemy, but so often excess is the goal. I think the same can be said for desire, whether it be for wealth or power, it does not bring happiness, it brings more desire.

There are no bad hugs though, a hug is a beautiful thing. To hug someone is to give them something tangible that they can take away. Hug o’clock I say!

Paul S Wilson