Food, Sex and Giving… Wait, what happened to Drugs, Sex and Rock ‘n Roll?
Author of best seller Half the Sky, Nicolas D. Kristof, looks into the lives of two very different folk. One is a 36 year old man who lives in Florida alone with a pool, he is successful, attractive and healthy. The other is a 64 year old black woman, poor and overweight but has a close relationships with her husband children, grandchildren. She is respected in her church for volunteering her time and energy in the music department and she give 10 percent of her income to charity and has raised 10,000 for earthquake relief in Haiti. Kristof tells the New York Times that he believes that the 64 year old woman is happier then the man. How do you figure?
According to Jonathan Haidt, a psychology professor at the University of Virginia, he writes in his book “The Happiness Hypothesis.” even though more people would prefer to exchange lives with Richard the 36 year old, Lorna the 64 year old woman is probably a happier person.Kristof explains, “she has less stress and is respected by her peers — factors that make us feel good. Happiness is tied to volunteering and to giving blood, and people with religious faith tend to be happier than those without. A solid marriage is linked to happiness, as is participation in social networks. And one study found that people who focus on achieving wealth and career advancement are less happy than those who focus on good works, religion or spirituality, or friends and family.”
Happiness is a very complex feeling to measure. Kristof quotes John Stuart Mill who had a point when he suggested: “It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied.”
There was a study done by Dr. Jorge Moll of the National Institutes of Health that found when he asked his subject to think about giving money to a charity, the same parts of his brain that light up when thinking about self pleasures like food and sex. Co-founder of Smile Train says, “The most selfish thing you can do is to help other people,”. One could say that we are innately born to be selfish, whether it be eating or giving, it makes us feel good. There areworser things I suppose.
Photo Courtesy of Loganantill, via Flickr
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