Too seek pleasure and happiness in one’s life can imply many outcomes. In class we discussed Lucky Smith and how he had a long and ‘successful’ life. Many people can describe his life and imply that it is desirable but not actually wish to have it. The Idea of Lucky’s life is nice but unrealistic. I would argue that most people have learned to appreciate real life for its unpredictability. Life is a journey that which everyone embarks on for themselves. Proust describes what is gained from that journey: (Haidt, p. 152)
“We do not receive wisdom, we must discover it for ourselves, after a journey through the wilderness which no one else can make for us, which no one can spare us, for our wisdom is the point of view from which we come …show more content…
This journey which Proust is highlighting with mighty importance is a journey which is not easy and implies the experience of struggle. His quote is also very flexible because we can replace the word wisdom with words like happiness, joy, success, calling, and so on. There are many journeys in our life and they could all lead to different outcomes. Through discomfort, failures, and hardships is how we can discover what this journey really means for us and how to regard the rest of what we have left to live. The journey is real and that is important. The lives discussed in the stories of “Callings” for example were real lives! They were not ideal and really had nothing in common with Lucky’s life. When thinking bout what makes a good life we are unable to really process what that implies because we know that real life is complex. These lives were not carried out with a prescribe description of what is a good life, instead, they were just experienced for what they were. They suffered, experienced joy and pleasure, struggled, and succeeded. It was not determined by them or by us; it was the journey which was prescribe onto …show more content…
Ogunniy who is an English teacher who found his calling through grieving for his father’s death. His story has none of the components of Lucky’s life but all of the components from a real life. During a break from school Mr. Ogunniy had come back home to visit his parents. One day he had breakfast with his dad and he had conversation with him about how he met his mother. After that they both went on about their day. Later that night when Mr. Ogunniy turned on to watch the news and he heard the description of homicide that had occurred earlier that evening. His fathered had been murdered by young men. Mr. Ogunniy and his father had always been very close, so his father’s death really hurt him. He didn’t understand what led these young men to the point where they had to kill his father. One summer Mr. Ogunniy was volunteering as a tutor in an impoverished neighborhood. These kids were of the same background of those who had killed his father. Mr. Ogunniy found joy through helping these kids learn and adapt to struggles of the world they live in. He interprets his service as him keeping his father alive within him because he uses a lot of what his father taught him to help these kids (Isay & Millet, p. 173). He found a passion and he has grown to enjoy the work that he