Friday, July 5, 2013

The Seeker

A few days ago, Carol in Cairns, posted this from Socrates:

The secret of happiness...is not found in seeking more,
but in developing the capacity to enjoy less.

Carol has moved on and so has apparently everyone else except me.  As I am often want to do, I'm lagging around, pondering details.  I would like to talk to the old codger but that's not possible for me.  Maybe I can ask Madame Weebles to do it...

At any rate, what did he stop seeking?  And really, this is directly contradictory to another admonishment, "seek and ye shall find."  To seek or not to seek, that is the question.  I've decided this all has to do with Wal-Mart.

One of my nephews is extremely retarded and most of the time you can't understand anything he says.  You can understand when he says "goto Wal-Mart."  If you ask, "Lindberg, why do you want to go to Wal-Mart, he'll say, "see what they got."

Now I have thought at various times they don't have boxes of happiness at Wal-Mart.  Yes, I've looked.  Arguably, they have though because I found a box of Whitman's chocolates.  I have never seen anyone eat chocolate and cry at the same time.  Maybe this is possible but I've never seen it.  We could ask Robyn.

After an exhaustive search in the store and seeing what Lindberg found on several occasions, I've come to some conclusions:

1.  Yes Wal-Mart does indeed have boxes of happiness.
2.  Eventually you'll get unhappy though because they won't have anything new.
3.  You can eat only so much chocolate.  RE:  Robyn to see it this statement is true.
4.  No matter how much you plead with the manager to get new stuff, new flavors and new toys, she will say she can't.
5.  Too much seeking will turn you into a Seeker and you won't have time for anything else.

So now back to Socrates' statement.  Just maybe how Socrates would have said it nowadays is stop thinking "I want" and instead think, "I have."

16 comments:

Andrew Leon said...

I think Socrates was a trouble maker and that he liked being a trouble maker. Maybe, that's where his happiness was.

David Oliver said...

Well yeah, but he had good reason. Anyway, maybe making trouble made him happy. Maybe that was the only way he had to effect change since he couldn't write. Actually I don't mean he couldn't write - I don't know - I mean he didn't write and there had to be a good reason for that. Maybe Wal-Mart was out of pencils.

Andrew Leon said...

Oh, I'm not saying he didn't have good reason. He took a stance against the mediocrity in his society, and I'm all for that. I just also think he enjoyed being a trouble maker. Which is probably why Plato wrote everything down. Socrates was just too busy causing trouble.

David Oliver said...

Ah, okay Andrew, I gotcha. Yep, some people have that type personality.

Carol said...

Umm David, thank you for the blog traffic via your post. what a strange world we live in when something I say on one side of the world has that ripple effect all the way across to the other side of the world ~ days later. This is the butterfly effect in action ~ refer to chaos theory. I have blogged about it previously and may do again at some point ~ unless you get to it first. Whit mans chocolates are good, but Thorntons from the UK are my favorite.

David Oliver said...

Carol, thank you for the idea for this blog. When I began doing this, I thought I would have a few ideas and would publish something occasionally. That changed as I read other blogs - sometimes it is a word, sometimes a phrase or concept. I love reading what people think from all over the world.

I'll look up Throntons and see if it is available here because despite what Socrates said, it is okay to seek out chocolate. :)

Anonymous said...

Socrates is a dirty old man---last time he paid a visit, he announced his presence by goosing me. I guess being dead for a few thousand years makes a guy kind of frisky. The next time he comes by, I will ask him what he meant by that statement, and what he stopped seeking. I can tell you this much, though---he didn't stop seeking peeks at women's cleavage. He's still doing that.

David Oliver said...

Weebs, I sense some anger here and it is understandable. Maybe you could cut him some slack though. After all, in his day women didn't have rights and equality would have been unthinkable. Still he needs to learn some respect and I've no doubt you will set him on a path to redemption.

David Oliver said...

Oh and if you do find out what he stopped seeking, by all means let us know.

David Oliver said...

TB, I couldn't be sure what you were agreeing with but I find myself pretty much always agreeing with you, so I'll just say right on!

By the way, I'm thinking about getting a puppy. Big thing is if Leo will accept it. I've been Googling introducing a dog to a cat hoping to avoid any pit falls. You mentioned early on Mrs. TB had a cat so any advice you can give, I will appreciate and take to heart.

Rawknrobyn.blogspot.com said...

I'm all smiles having been linked to here, David. Thank you kindly! Yes, it is possible to cry and eat chocolate at the same time. I've done so on numerous occasions when I was eating the last chocolate in the box. Second, yes, depending on one's mouth size, one can only eat so much chocolate at once.

You're welcome. Moreover, THANK YOU.
Cheers,
xoRobyn

David Oliver said...

You are very welcome! When I thought about chocolate, of course I thought about you and your blog. :)

A Beer for the Shower said...

Money can't buy happiness, but it CAN buy proper nutrition. And you can't tell me there's a single person on the planet who'd be happy eating Ramen noodles for the rest of their lives...

David Oliver said...

Nope, but those noodles sure got a lot of kids through college.

BTW, your book is really good, that is, what I've read of it. Seems amazon.com doesn't care for people with Samsung tablets but I'm not done harassing them.

Carol Kilgore said...

When I apply Socrates statement to my own life, it means stop buying stuff just to have stuff. Declutter and simplify your life, and then you will be happy with what you have because you can see and appreciate it. This includes the little things, too. Especially the small things we take for granted every day, like sunrises and flowers and the breeze against our faces.

David Oliver said...

Yes Carol, if I'm going to be serious for a moment, you are absolutely right. My nephew is a gardener and has a huge garden. The most fun I had over the 4th of July week was kicking around that garden and talking with him and my son and his family. We talked and joked and my grand baby loved the little water falls and flowers.

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