I find that actually, both of the readings share a similar idea of the answer to the Good Life: which is the acceptance of the unknown and horrendous. The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Ephesians, the author states that “to connect to the outside with an interior presence must absorb the mysterious.” And in What Makes Us Happy, Vaillant states that being happy is the acceptance of the really crummy parts of life. This way of thinking seems to align with my train of thought as well. Pain and Suffering is unavoidable. If one were to understand that life will, almost guaranteed to, have some very negative occurrences in it, then one would not be so consumed with grief. When I encounter a situation that is not the best for me, I accept it us unchanging and bound to happen. I know that this is a small example, but just other day I came home from a long day of school and work and all I wanted to do was eat. So I pulled this tray of sandwiches that my room mate got from a social gathering out of the refrigerator and I placed them on the counter. When I went to go get a plate, all (roughly 15) of the sandwiches fell onto the floor. My first reaction was to be absolutely furious but I took a step back and thought, “Things like this have to happen eventually.” And I then proceeded to just laugh it off and gathered on “Oh Well” attitude towards it.
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