A Philosopher’s Adventure #11

Episode #11 - Happiness is Our Basic Need

A Spotless Sky

The opening music sounds like spring. The feeling of hope and movement has returned to the mountain. Martijn talks about the “silence” of the mountain. There are sounds in the city that don’t exist in the mountains. He talks about the sound of the grass and the sound of water as it moves down the mountain. All of this is overrun by the addition of electricity to our lives. Again, this isn’t a call to go back to living in caves. This is a call to be mindful of what is around us and how it affects us. Martijn asks, “Can a view make you happy?” Well, the view I see during this story makes me happy, and it’s on the other side of the globe, so I am going to say yes, a view can make you happy.

The important takeaway is to listen and feel what is happening around us. The sound of rushing life is rarely offset by the sound of the grass, or birds, or wind in the trees. Those sounds are there, but are we giving the sounds of nature the chance to have positive offsetting effects on our bodies?

“Hello Birds”

I think this is the moment when spring really starts. Martijn says hello to the first bird of the season. He turns to the camera, and he shows that subtle, happy look that Martijn displays from time to time. The next thing we see is the tarp on the roof being removed, and the roof project has begun. We don’t yet know how much this homestead is going to change over the coming episodes, but the cold and the snow are about to break and hope that comes with change is on the way. The main lesson I take from this episode is that positive change offers hope, and hope is the start of positive cycles.

“Safety shouldn’t take a day off” -OSHA, probably

The Scaffold of Life

The episode ends with a summary of the inner cabin and how it has everything Martijn needs to be comfortable on the mountain. This gets to the core of how I think we should be taught to live. Figure out the minimum you need to be happy then add something else if it makes you happier. Grow your life to include the things that make you happy and fit within the support system you can build. This mostly means income, but there are social and familial support systems that add to our capacity to build our lives. That’s the approach I think many were not shown the opportunity. When we see this, we wonder why it looks wonderful. It’s wonderful because we watch this life be created at the pace it wants to be created. It grows at a pace that fits the main character’s abilities. It is simple happiness constructed on a scaffold of basic needs, filled in by the increase of skills desired to be attained.

Thanks for reading, see you next time.

CHR;)