--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Jordan, William George collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 13 number: 12 published: 1910-10 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: "Jordan, William George, “The Crown of Individuality: XI. The Victoria Cross of Happiness,” *Improvement Era* 13, no. 12 (October 1910): 1079–1083." source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera13012unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera13012unse start_page: 1079 end_page: 1083 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1910-10) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera13012unse publication_year: 1910 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1910, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # The Crown of Individuality: XI. The Victoria Cross of Happiness 1078 IMPROVEMENT ERA. and women who, notwithstanding all the temptations aud induce- ments to sin thrown around them, all of which are necessary to prove them, are showing a purity of life, strength of character, a self-denial, a devotion to duty to God and his cause, that show they can be trusted in any position to which they may be called. And though we cannot say that all are walking the narrow way, yet out of this people, in the due time of the Lord, will be chosen a mighty host who will go and build up Zion, the "New Jerusalem," by the principles of "the law of the celestial king- dom," having a knowledge of all the arts, sciences, inventions and conveniences of civilization, also a knowledge of God by inspi- ration from heaven. They will build a temple and a city that will be the beauty of holiness, out of which God will shine, and the gen- tiles will come to her light, and "kings to the brightness of her rising," a city that the Lord will delight to own and bless at his coming. MAxcos, Colo. IN THE GRAND CANYON, ARIZONA. The Crown of Individuality.* BY WILLIAM GEORGE JORDAN. XL — The Victoria Cross of Happiness. Happiness does not come from folding our hands, serenely filling our hearts with the minor music of resignation, and gazing heavenward as though posing for a spiritual photograph. Happi- ness is activity, not torpor; doing, not dreaming; finding oneself, not losing oneself; illumination, not illusion; reality, not imagina- tion. Happiness does not fool itself by believing that whatever is is best; it seeks constantly to find whatever is best in what is and — tries to make it better. Making ourselves believe we are happy, by thinking that we are, is a poor brand of self -hypnotism. It does not bring happi- ness, any more than imagining we are dining sets before us a table with a real, eatable dinner of nine courses. Constantly declaring loudly we are happy when, in the deep indigo of a mood, we feel that happiness is for us forever as extinct as the dodo, is not brave, it is dishonest. It is playing a confidence game on the credulity of our friends. It is false optimism — the voice of the pessimist lying about his troubles. True happiness does not brag — it radiates. If the trials and sorrows of life depress, one should not deny but realize them, and then instantly seek to change conditions, as the engineer stops his train at a danger signal and aids in removing the obstacle on the track. If our sorrows be real, we should * From The Crown of Individuality. Copyright, 1909, by Fleming Revell Company. 1080 IMPROVEMENT ERA. then bear them as bravely as we can by concentrating the thought on brighter things. We often accentuate our pains by hot poul- tices of self-sympathy that we constantly apply to our wounds. We do not let Nature gently heal them; we do not seek to forget ours in helping others to forget theirs. Delusion never gives reality. Reality comes only from truth — right thinking followed by right living. The Infinite gives to no man happiness; but only the raw material from which it can be made. He provides iron ore but never plowshares, clay but not bricks, wheat but not loaves. The material from which one man forms only an abode of misery, another transforms into a temple of joy. Happiness is a manu- factured article; it cannot be bought or sold, it must be home- made —by the individual himself. The only man for whom a ready- made paradise was provided was Adam — and he spoiled it all and was evicted. All the other people have had to make their own paradise or go without. Life is not a summer holiday, or a personally conducted tour through joyland, or a dream we must accept just as it comes— it is a struggle, a battle. We must do our part; we must fight — fight, too, with no war maps of the full campaign spread out before us for our consultation and inspiration. We must fight the enemy that is nearest, vanquish the duty that stands in our way, help the faint and the fallen, win every point of higher, better, clearer vision, be ready for whatever comes — with a true soldier's defiance of the odds against him. Whatever is worth while is worth the fight to attain it. If you want happiness, fight for it like a man. Fight to be worthy of it, fight to win it, fight to keep it, fight to share it, fight to help others get theirs. Fighting for happiness is paradoxic. We must battle for something higher than happiness or we will not win it. He who aims at it directly always misses it. He gets a poor, weak, adul- terated brand of selfishness that proves that his satisfaction, pleasure or joy is only a flavored, cheap substitute. Nature's pure food brand, the real article, never has a bad after-taste, it never palls. He who is living on the higher levels, battling bravely to be at his best, placing happiness secondary to love, right, honor, ideals, truth, unselfishness and justice, is the one to whom it THE CROWN OF INDIVIDUALITY. 1081 comes. Happiness is the moral Victoria Cross of life. It is an extra award given for kingship over self, a fine victory on the battlefield of self, "for valor," for the good of others. More than fifty years ago England established the Victoria Cross — that simple Maltese cross of bronze with a decoration and the words, "For Valor," the whole suspended from a ribbon. It was given to soldiers, sailors, and to all others who proved worthy by special acts of unselfish bravery in imperative need. Of the thousands awarded this most highly-prized honor, few, if any, ever thought of it for an instant at the very hour — they proved supremely worthy of it. Thrilled with sublime courage in the heat of battle they over-rode mere duty by a higher inspiration. Love for humanity made some rise to supreme heights of daring to save the lives of others. Some stood brave and undaunted, fearless, almost blind, to every danger in the hour of supreme need of a nation, an army or an individual. Forgetting self, forgetting the fearful hazard, forgetting the spell-bound spectators, forgetting all but the imperative call for instant action, their plan was hardly conceived before its accom- plishment was begun. They responded to some divine impulse that so filled the human that it left no room for thought of the Cross. They forgot it, but they proved worthy of it— and later it was pinned on their breast. Let happiness be our Victoria Cross — given because of our proving worthy. The battlefield in our fight for happiness is not the world but — self. Mere attainment of wealth, fame, success, position, power or possession does not necessarily bring — happiness. The history of the ages proves this. Happiness comes ever from with- in. It is the atmosphere of an inner calm and peace. We must battle not for happiness directly but — against the elements within us that keep happiness from us, and valiantly on the side of those that will help us win it. There are traits within us that often poison the cup of happiness when it is safe within our hand, — jealousy, malice, stubbornness, envy, pride, selfishness, idleness, fear, worry, suspicion, and a host of others. Let us realize the elements that keep us from happiness, keep the need of mastering them before us, and we start bravely on the road. Worrv is a common enemy to happiness. It is restless sur- 1082 IMPROVEMENT ERA. render to vague fears, not meeting them singly, but multiplying them. It is the insistent, irritating iteration of one disturbing thought. Have you ever struck repeatedly one key of a type- writer when the ribbon does not move and then found it worn through in a few moments? There is no progress, no writing pro- duced, no result but useless wear. This is how worry acts on the mind; it eats through energy, purpose, vitality, and produces — nothing. It is not the sunshine of clear thinking focused on a problem, it is a dull, distorting, blurring mental fog that creates phantoms where none exist. It is not easy to control; but it can be conquered, and it must be or it will darken the whole life of the individual. Taking shorter views of the daily living helps greatly. Living from day to day, making each day a complete life in itself, doing each day our best, and in the realization we have done our best facing results bravely, — this is the magic formula that somehow we must learn to transform into real living. Worry has a corner on most of the — unhappiness in this life of ours. We must fight against selfishness if we would win — happiness. All the sins, weaknesses, and follies of human nature are simply selfishness appearing and reappearing under a hundred disguises or changes of garb. Selfishness is treacherous because it pro- duces a temporary counterfeit of happiness that cheats the individ- ual. It gives a semblance while destroying the reality. It puts him out of touch with humanity, kills his genuine interest in others, isolates him, intensifies his demands while diminishing his real resources, destroys his true perspective of life, builds up a false self-sufficiency, a self-finality. Nothing that lives in nature lives for itself alone. The plant that absorbs what is to it life-food, carbonic acid from the air, must exhale oxygen or it will die. Giving is as vital as getting. Fighting for happiness means get- ting it in order that we may give it, and by giving it we get it again in new form. Nothing outside of man can make him really —happy. It must in some way enter into the very fibers and substance of our lives and thoughts and needs. Happiness ultimately means self-conquest, self -harmony. It is the higher self ruling in peace over a con- quered lower self, as a victorious general wisely rules a city he has taken. Happiness must not be confused with content, satisfaction,