Continuing in the same vein as the previous post, I
found this very interesting ‘short’ on YouTube today. The speaker is saying
that some experts who measure happiness (don’t laugh: happiness research and counselling
is a big industry today) have found convincing evidence that three kinds of
spending noticeably increase people’s overall happiness: spending on
experiences (like partying with good friends or travelling or reading) rather
than things (cars, phones, jewellery, whatever), spending on getting boring or
disgusting or frightening things done by others (like painting the house or
cleaning clogged drains) and spending on others’ welfare, especially those in
some kind of need and looking for your help. Think about it for five minutes,
will you – whether you are male or female, young or old, highly or slightly
educated, rich or not so rich, even if you believe you are too busy to bother about such things?
The second one made me do a double take, but upon a
little reflection I found it was quite reasonable and made sane sense. The first
and last, on the other hand, have been part of good living advice that has been
urged by the wise in all lands and ages for millennia: it is only in the last
hundred years or so (yes, as recently as that!) that billions of people have
been persuaded by the rulers (read arch capitalists running vast corporations, and having more wealth than they can spend in many lifetimes)
that buying things non-stop whether you need them or not, whether you can
really afford them or not, whether they really significantly affect your well-being
or not, is the only purpose and meaning of life. And see where that sick
philosophy has brought us already!
So it seems that concern about spiritual living is not that
far removed from everyday life.
