I have been watching a series on PBS: "This Emotional Life" with Dan Gilbert. If you have read earlier posts, you can tell that I am a fan of Dan the man.
I am looking at it with new eyes. One very salient point he makes is that our lives, our happiness is in the hands of others, meaning that we derive a lot of our happiness from our interrelationships with others. However it is my personal responsibility to reach out to the ones I know and love, and therein lies the irony.
As you can see from the last three postings, I have just recently reconnected with some very wonderful people, my former students.
Referring also back to my second posting, I had closed myself off. I suspect that being closed off is my default position. I need to become more vigilant not to slip back into that, though it does seem a habit of mine.
In the third of the series in "This Emotional Life" Dan Gilbert talks about altruism. I think that those who eschew being altruistic are impoverishing their own lives, by denying themselves the joy that comes from compassion. I will be sure to watch tonight: http://www.pbs.org/thisemotionallife/
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