How much trouble which you'd rather not to be? 00:00:00
It is a weird question, right? Because you wanna have something to contend with. 00:00:04
You wanna have something that, that, 00:00:08
Forces from you the best that you have and so, you'd have had a real problem. 00:00:10
Something like that! 00:00:14
Which you dispense with reality. 00:00:15
You just lay down on a bed and have pablum infused into your mouth 00:00:17
You know, if all your problems were solved 00:00:21
So maybe you want difficult problems 00:00:23
that you can solve, something like that 00:00:26
because there is some, I don't know what it is about it 00:00:28
There's the overcoming and the growth comes along with that 00:00:31
There's something about the nobility of the enterprise 00:00:34
You certainly see that when you go about having children for example 00:00:36
which is you know the psychological literature is quite clear- 00:00:39
you do moment to moment comparisons of 00:00:43
people who have kids and people who don't have kids, 00:00:45
the people who don't have kids are happier 00:00:47
And so psychologists 00:00:49
who tend to get things wrong even they make intelligent discoveries 00:00:51
Like that one, immediately 00:00:54
some of them jump into conclusion that 00:00:56
because happiness is the goal that 00:00:59
Well there is something about children and you know 00:01:01
making one happy and that's not good 00:01:04
it's like wait a second, maybe it's the wrong metric 00:01:05
of course you are less happy once you have children, because you have to worry about them 00:01:10
you know, my neighbor down to street is very smart woman said to me once 00:01:13
''You can only be as happy as your unhappiest child'' 00:01:16
Which I thought it was really good 00:01:20
You know that's really smart 00:01:22
-But then it isn't- But if having children doesn't make you happy, the answer isn't 00:01:23
Don't have children, it's like don't be so stupid about being happy 00:01:27
That's the answer, because there is a nobility in the pursue 00:01:30
Right, of course now you are responsible, you know when you have a new baby 00:01:34
you think, especially if you are a new parent, you think 00:01:37
huh, what the hell is this? What am I gonna do with it? 00:01:41
You know, it's like and then 00:01:44
You are done to the rest of your life, you'll never sleep properly again 00:01:46
Because you gonna be worried about this creature 00:01:50
That you have to take care of and like what the hell good are you 00:01:52
if you are not doing that? Or something else equally difficult 00:01:55
Because you just haven't been called out yet 00:01:58
Unless you take on a responsibility like that 00:02:02
The idea that, life is you know, that happiness is the purpose of life 00:02:05
It's like, great for happiness man if it comes along 00:02:08
you should be for real that it's visiting you 00:02:11
But the notion, that's what you should pursue 00:02:14
That's the weakest possible notion 00:02:18
First of all, as soon as something terrible happens to you, you're done. 00:02:20
It's like, life is to be happy. 00:02:24
It's like now you have cancer, how is that? How is the happiness thing working out for you now? 00:02:25
(applause) 00:02:30
Or maybe it's not you, you know, 00:02:32
Maybe it's your father that has Alzheimer dissease, or some damn thing 00:02:34
you know, it's like, it's a rare person that doesn't have some catastrophy 00:02:38
One person away from them 00:02:41
It's like, life is to be happiest. That's not right 00:02:44
And we can at least derive that from the stories, that isn't what they say at all 00:02:47
God is perfectly happy in the storys 00:02:51
To grant the people whom he reform cavonent 00:02:53
Happiness and prosperity, but there is never award 00:02:57
That's the purpose, the rule is 00:03:00
Aim high and get your bloody act together, that's the rule 00:03:02
And established to this constructural cavonent with the ultimate ideal 00:03:05
And that will see you through the catastrophy 00:03:08
And that's a much more mature way of looking at life, as far as I'm concerned 00:03:10
Because all you have to do is have your eyes half open 00:03:13
And you see that 00:03:16
the fundamental reality of life is tragedy and suffering 00:03:18
That is inescapable, that doesn't mean 00:03:21
it makes life unbearable or that it makes 00:03:25
being something that shouldn't have existed 00:03:28
That isn't what it means, but it means 00:03:31
that you have to content with it and you have to get ready 00:03:33
and willingness to adobt responsibility 00:03:36
for yourself and for other is the pre-condition for that 00:03:39
and then maybe if you do that properly, now and then you'll get some happiness 00:03:42
You know you can sit at the end of the day and you have half an hour 00:03:45
Where your conscience is clear 00:03:48
and there is nothing that you need to be doing and you can relax and think 00:03:50
You know, that's allright, things are okay. Thank god for that 00:03:53
And that's maybe where you get your happiness. 00:03:57
So 00:04:00
That's something, that's growing up man, obviously 00:04:02