, , , or a dandelion?
I’ve been doing some reading in the past couple of weeks about introverts vs. extroverts and ran across this comparison. It’s actually about children, not people in general. So, dandelions thrive anywhere, they’re tough, and they’re cheerful. They don’t know the meaning of the word “no.” But orchids . . . well, they’re finicky. They have exacting requirements for life. They’re either spectacular — or dead. Which are you, and which would you rather be?
. . . u
ntil I obey Him” (Rosaria Butterfield’s book, discussed on the previous post). I discuss this idea of the connection between our feelings and our actions in chapter two, “How Our Emotions Work” of my book. It’s very true that the main source of our feelings is our thoughts: “As [a man] thinketh in his heart, so is he” (Prov. 22:7 KJV). But where do the thoughts come from? They seem to arise spontaneously most of the time, don’t they?
Those who say that we are just products of chance and our entire mental processes are therefore chemical reactions would then have to go on and say that our thoughts are simply random.
The Happiness Project: Or Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun by Gretchen Rubin, HarperCollins, 2009 (original hardback publication date; now available in several other formats)
It occurred to me that it wouldn’t be a bad idea to do a formal review (well, as formal as these things ever are) of The Happiness Project, since that book kicked off my whole “Intentional Living” thing. I give credit to the book in Intentional Happiness and also on the home page of this website, but here’s some further information. Gretchen Rubin certainly doesn’t need my help in selling any more books, as she’s sold about a gazillion already, and I would like for everyone reading this to buy a copy of my book first, but then after that you should buy a copy of her book if you’re one of the half dozen people who hasn’t already done so.
Plato at the Googleplex: Why Philosophy Won’t Go Away by Rebecca Newberger Goldstein. New York: Pantheon Books, 2014. Link is to the author’s website.
So . . .a 400+-page book on philosophy. Real promising, isn’t it? I hope I can persuade you to read it, even though parts of it are quite challenging and dense. Sometimes you finish a book with a feeling of satisfaction: “I made it through.” Sometimes with almost a sigh of relief: “So that’s what happened!” But once in a great while, at least for me, there’s a feeling of regret: “Now I won’t get to be in the company of these characters any more.” And that’s how I felt about the character of Plato in this book. Suddenly I realized, “Oh no! I’m almost finished, and I don’t want to be. I want to go along with Plato into more of our modern world, hearing his take on all sorts of other situations.” I hope I can get across in this post what a charming, gracious, focused person Plato is in this book.