Join me as I explore articles from a book published by Reader's Digest in 1955 called Keys to Happiness.

I am going to transcribe each article onto my website and then blog about it. Read along and let me know if you agree with my comments!

Thanks,

Cathy Goodman

The engineer in me wants a summary:



Kindness is winning out over all other keys to happiness!

 A Happy Find at an AAUW Garage Sale

Cathy Goodman, 2010

Have you read The Happiness Project by Gretchan Rubin? Know anyone who has? I’m guessing it is pretty well known in my demographic: women over 40. (I’m not going to say how much over 40 I am!) Seems we are a pretty un-happy bunch.

All the attention the book has garnered made me wonder if the search for happiness is something new. Is this just a symptom of our self-indulgent, 21st-century, middle-class mindset? I’ve come to think it is not.

It appears that as far back as Aristotle, and probably before, philosophers and the common man have been in search of something called “happiness.” Sometimes “happiness” has been defined as a “rightness-of-living” and sometimes it implies more hedonistic pleasures. Either way it is tough enough to achieve that a lot of thinking has been given to it.

One supposes that as soon as conciousness arose in ancient hominids, they searched for happiness too. My client, and amateur anthropologist, Jay Palec might say that back then happiness was simply a fully belly, a clear sky, and family members to nest with at night.

After that, it seems to have gotten more complicated.

Each successive generation on record has decried the confusion and stress of “modern life” and given thought to the definition and pursuit of “happiness.”

As if to prove the point, I discovered a book titled Keys to Happiness: A Reader’s Digest Guide to Successful Living at the local AAUW used book sale last weekend.

The publication date is 1955 and the tome contains condensations of 125 books and essays from the 1940s and 1950s. It is a hefty 575 pages and has a cardboard storage case with the name Henry Kremer in gold on the front.

Perhaps Mr. Kremer was the original owner of the book and a fellow seeker of happiness? Or maybe it was a gift from someone who wished he was happier?

Whatever the case, I bought it with the intention to read from it daily; at least the days I’m working in my office when it will be a happy distraction from my free-lance work. I’m wondering how it might be similar and/or different from our thoughts about happiness today.

Want to follow along? I’ll be posting excerpts and comments here. 

To add your comment, email me at cathryngoodman@yahoo.com

Have a happy day ;-)

Cathryn



True to the Reader's Digest tradition, the book also contains funny or touching antecdotes that may have nothing to do with the topic at hand. Here are a few:

"Planning Parenthood: One enterprising mother solved the problem of getting her year-old infant to swallow a pill. She put first the pill, then the baby, on the playpen floor. True to the ways of small children, he promptly popped the pill into his mouth and gulped it down. Contributed by Mrs. J. M. Eshlemen."

"Master Touches: A teacher who regularly makes a practice of hunting up the most unattractive child and whispering in her ear, "You're getting prettier everyday," says it always works; almost at once the child begins to blossom into something close to beauty. Marcelene Cox."