What is happiness? What makes us happy? I think a lot of the
time we take for granted the little things in life that make us happy. I know
for me, it is really hard to find what exactly those little things are, because
it is this continuous journey of trial and error. Sometimes we get caught up in
the mundane motions of life, but life isn’t mundane at all. It is full of
hidden beauty and spontaneity that we consciously and unconsciously ignore. I
think we have accidentally programed ourselves to be so hard on ourselves, that
we sometimes forget to live in the moment. Although Timothy Treadwell was
crazy, he was smarter than all of us. He found what made him happy, no matter
how insane and damaging to others it was, he did it. I envy him in this sense,
because he made an active choice to give up and stop doing all the things that
made him feel insignificant and depressed, and he decided to live. His adopted
life style was illogical and a little irrational, but at moments his life with
the bears made him feel like he belonged somewhere. I think Timothy was similar
to a Bokononist. He was living by foma. He
was constantly telling himself these harmless untruths that made him happy. I
don’t think there is any malice in that. I think we need to learn from
Treadwell and actively choose to do the things that make us content. We need to
learn to live by foma. Not all the
time, but I think there is some connection to overall wellbeing and this
concept of living by these harmless
untruths to survive. The discussion
we had on Friday really made me consider the things in my life that make me
happy and how can I attain the goal of ultimate life satisfaction. I think the
possibility of adopting a little bit of foma,
could not hurt the discovery process of what makes us happy.
Kylie, I see where you are coming from when you say that Treadwell lived by foma, but I do not agree with you when you declare him smarter than us. I think one could perceive Treadwell as ignorant; ignorant of the dangers that awaited his every journey into the Alaskan wilderness. Also, the bears were not endangered and if he really felt compelled to take action against poachers he would have done so in a different manner. Perhaps legislatively. I think there is a good chance he was addicted to the thrill of constantly being surrounded by danger. Almost like how a soldier gets addicted to killing during war. He could have grown to love the adrenaline rush of living with grizzly bears. Regardless, Treadwell did have the courage to do what he loved even though it may have not always been the most sane reasoning, and for this I admire him as well.
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