Improve and Enjoy
"If the world were merely seductive, that would be easy. It it were merely challenging, that would be no problem. But I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day."
Elwyn Brooks White, 1899-1985 American Essayist and Author
I have the same challenge - lately I have been thinking it is an AND - a subtle balance: that improving the world means looking at the small things…Sometimes I wonder if they aren’t perhaps also the same thing? If I bring and spread joy, do I improve the world?
Your thoughts?
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November 11th, 2006 at 6:11 am
misc. thoughts…
- which ‘world’?
- what would Elwyn do?
- and feels better than or
- what does your heart say?
- if you believe it, and enjoy it
- it may not be a thing, but a process
- can we really enjoy what doesn’t challenge us?
- is changing a part of the world challenging enough?
- can a challenge be enjoying, so you enjoy the challenge
- where is the challenge (in, above, under, around, in front…)?
- it might be easy to plan the artificial, but hard to plan the natural
- when the world is improved, what then? no more challenge, no more improvement? is the first improvement really smaller after all?
- planning is hard, and needs experts, but experts often fail to plan as well as an unfolding series of naturally small changes
- looking at the small things - probably won’t change them, unless they look back - though looking, in new ways, may change us
- doing small things - perhaps, it will change things, perhaps it already is, changing a world
- spreading joy - kind of sounds like marmite, but i hear you can’t bring that to the states anymore :)
- perhaps the joy is not spread, or transferred, by one, but a co-production, if one person, alone, enjoys a tree falling in the forest, is the world improved?
- perhaps to spread joy, to make people be happy is a paradoxical challenge, can we only affect others through their own looking at our joy?
just thoughts that came to mind, not seeking answers, only more thoughts :)
November 13th, 2006 at 6:36 pm
hmm, is joy seductive, attractive? the ‘challenge’ of many small things, mis-takes if you like, or an ex-ploration of possibilities beyond an inner space of thoughts, together, ‘joy’ as the recognition of mutual recognition, finding a sweet spot, or crossroads in the space, knowing smiles, speaking silently, a connection, a spark between? improving without imposing?