The Happiness Project: Happiness quotation from Christopher Alexander (again).

The Happiness Project

I’m working on a book, THE HAPPINESS PROJECT, a memoir of the year I spent test-driving the wisdom of the ages, the current scientific studies, and the lessons from popular culture about how to be happy--from Aristotle to Martin Seligman to Thoreau to Oprah. On this daily blog, I recount my adventures as I grapple with the challenge of being happier. THE HAPPINESS PROJECT will hit the shelves in December 2009 (Harper).

What Started Me Thinking

"Whoever is happy will make others happy, too." Mark Twain.
“There is no duty we so much underrate as the duty of being happy.” Robert Louis Stevenson
"Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her." Luke 10:41-42
“Imaginary evil is romantic and varied; real evil is gloomy, monotonous, barren, boring. Imaginary good is boring; real good is always new, marvelous, intoxicating.” Simone Weil
“What a wonderful life I’ve had! I only wish I’d realized it sooner.” Colette
“It is easy to be heavy: hard to be light.” G. K. Chesterton
“A man’s first care should be to avoid the reproaches of his own heart.” Joseph Addison
“Best is good. Better is best.” Lisa Grunwald
“Order is Heaven’s first law.” Alexander Pope

Happiness Theories I Reject

Flaubert: "To be stupid, and selfish, and to have good health are the three requirements for happiness; though if stupidity is lacking, the others are useless."
Vauvenargues: “There are men who are happy without knowing it.”
Eric Hoffer: “The search for happiness is one of the chief sources of unhappiness.”
Sartre: "Hell is other people."
Willa Cather: “One cannot divine nor forecast the conditions that will make happiness; one only stumbles upon them…”
Alexander Smith: “We are never happy; we can only remember that we were so once.”
John Stuart Mill: “Ask yourself whether you are happy, and you cease to be so.”

Christopheralexander If I consider my life honestly, I see that it is governed by a certain very small number of patterns of events which I take part in over and over again.

Being in bed, having a shower, having breakfast in the kitchen, sititng in my study writing, walking in the garden, cooking and eating our common lunch at my office with my friends, going to the movies, taking my family to eat at a restaurant, going to bed agin. There are a few more.

There are surprisingly few of these patterns of events in any one person’s way of life, perhaps no more than a dozen. Look at your own life and you will find the same. It is shocking at first, to see that there are so few patterns of events open to me.

Not that I want more of them. But when I see how very few of them there are, I begin to understand what huge effect these few patterns have on my life, on my capacity to live. If these few patterns are good for me, I can live well. If they are bad for me, I can’t. -- Christopher Alexander

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I'm on a Christopher Alexander kick right now. Just finished The Timeless Way of Building, now on to The Oregon Experiment.

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Through Dooce, I discovered Momversation. So many great bloggers to watch! I must be strong, or I'll spend two hours sitting in front of the computer screen.

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Comments

Did you know that he has a web site? It is worth checking out: http://www.patternlanguage.com/

You have (again) in the headline but I didn't find a reference to the original quote - was there an original quote?

Posted by: Helen | December 20, 2008 at 08:57 AM

This is so true. I am lucky that the two habits that bracket every day are ones that feel particularly good. I love my first cup of coffee, and I love our comfortable bed. We also eat the same lunch each day, and I always enjoy it. They seems like such small things, but I believe happiness is made of many small moments.

Posted by: Louise | December 20, 2008 at 09:45 AM

Thanks for this one, Gretchen. I'm a big fan of "The Timeless Way of Building" and "A Pattern Language."

Posted by: Tim Walker | December 20, 2008 at 11:48 AM

Alexander is awesome.

Are you familiar with how he's 'accidentally' revolutionized the software industry? It's really just jaw dropping.

Posted by: Mike Wilson | December 20, 2008 at 01:57 PM

I never thought to look at my life as the same 12 patterns that I keep reliving. That's a perspective that can help anyone find a way to break out and create positive change.

It's why I blog to open new doors that would otherwise be closed. I'm hoping to break old patterns and insert new ones that make me happier. So far it's been working.

As for the patterns I can't change...I know that I will never be able to change patterns such as sleeping and eating. My goal is to find more beauty in each habitual pattern so it stops feeling monotonous and becomes creative.

Posted by: Karl Staib - Work Happy Now | December 20, 2008 at 04:13 PM

I love your blog and check in regularly. Christopher Alexander's quote is by far the most helpful to me yet in how I think about my own happiness and what I might change in order to be happier. A reminder to me to check the foundation of my life to see where there might be cracks. Thank you for this post.

Posted by: Katie | December 21, 2008 at 04:00 PM

I too am a fan of patterns and Alexander is the man.

Great excerpt and it really puts things in perspective. Master the few patterns you do everyday.

I'm a fan of intentionally test-driving new patterns on a monthly basis (I do 30 day improvement sprints.)

Posted by: J.D. Meier | December 22, 2008 at 03:12 AM

This is a fantastic quote!
It really puts things into perspective.
I'm going to have to think about my routine tasks.

Juliet

Posted by: LifeMadeGreat | Juliet | December 22, 2008 at 07:06 AM

Keeping a journal of daily activities and moods seems like a practical way to build off Alex's mentality.

But more importantly, before every activity, one must consider the why behind it.

Posted by: Bruno | December 22, 2008 at 02:41 PM

Interesting thought about life patterns. Will contemplate about that. Thanks for sharing!

Posted by: Busby SEO Test Gary Viray | December 22, 2008 at 07:59 PM

The quote is interesting; what is the source document? Is it part of an article or book?

Posted by: Julia | December 23, 2008 at 12:33 PM

Thanks for the link to Alexander's site -- I'm off to check it out right now.

The reason I said "again" was that last Saturday's quotation was also from Alexander. Here's the link:
http://www.happiness-project.com/happiness_project/2008/12/happiness-quo-1.html

Posted by: GretchenRubin | December 23, 2008 at 02:01 PM

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