Reply #58: Healthy and happy, you can be a help to others

[bhikkhu]

Sick and miserable, its hard to be of much use to the world, and I have the opportunity to at least be of some use to my family and my community. I'm well aware that I'm fortunate (though technically quite poor), but before one would go out and save the world, one must sometimes save oneself. Drinking and smoking and sick would be conscious decisions in my case, and were I to decide to live that way I think my thoughts and actions would inherently drag others down, rather than lift them up as I would like. Happiness is a survival tool, which you can spread around if you first have it yourself.

Happiness is a reasonable goal, like deciding to be healthy, like deciding to enjoy life. Sometimes I recall pictures I from Haiti, of kids laughing and playing amongst the destruction. You could say objectively they have nothing, and their future is likely long desperate poverty, but to sit and weep does me no more goods than it would do them...