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January 16, 2008 at 18:50:34

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In Quest of Happiness

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By Iftekhar Sayeed (about the author)     Page 2 of 2 page(s)

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Consequently, we have to learn to be happy; which requires us to unlearn some lessons inculcated by our elders and teachers, no doubt with the best of intentions but the worst of consequences. For who would not want his children to be happy? Yet happiness, we have learnt, must always be postponed, in grotesque confusion with money that must be saved. The fridge we finally got last year; and tomorrow we'll have that TV set; next year, the iPOD; and - heaven of heavens! - a flat some day in which to put all this detritus of the years. Yet behind the painted veil of life lie 'Hope and Fear - twin destinies, who ever weave/ The shadows the world calls substance....' We sacrifice, first, the lining of our stomachs to worry; next we dedicate an artery; we pay homage to tomorrow by raising our blood pressure. We have no time for solace, no time for Horace.                                                            

Wisely the God enwraps in fuliginous night

the future's outcome, and laughs

if mortals are anxious

beyond mortality's bound.

Take care to deal equably

with what is present.

And to live only for today requires us to rise up in rebellion against the tyranny of material possessions. We rave about democracy in public, yet live beneath a perpetual despotism in private. In our obsequious devotion to objects, we are hostage to the vicissitudes of the transitory. Nay, we covet illusions, as though covetousness were not vile enough. "Envy," observes Bertrand Russell, "consists in seeing things, not in themselves, but in their relations". Ozimandian externals affirm in the derelict decrepitude of dead things their Circean mastery. Few are the rebels.                                                

A happy life and mastery

over himself shall be his who daily

can say : 'I have lived'...

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http://www.geocities.com/if6065/farvardin

Iftekhar Sayeed teaches English and economics. He was born and lives in Dhaka, ‎Bangladesh. He has contributed to AXIS OF LOGIC, ENTER TEXT, POSTCOLONIAL ‎TEXT, LEFT CURVE, MOBIUS, ERBACCE, THE JOURNAL, and other publications. ‎He (more...)
 

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William Blake by John Hanks on Thursday, Jan 17, 2008 at 9:39:40 AM
DEPRESSION by RICHARD SHADE on Friday, Jan 18, 2008 at 6:55:24 AM

 
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