Sources of Joy and Factors of Happiness: Lessons VII–IX

Sources of Joy and Factors of Happiness A Study for the Advanced Senior Classes of M. I. A., 1921-22 By Dr. George H. Brimhall Lesson VII. — Ideality Ideality, in this discussion, shall mean the power of creating ideals and the process of working towards them. Out of an almost infinite number of aspects of a great subject a few have been selected for presentation in this lesson. No attempt has been made in any instance to ex- haust a topic. Ideality is the head light of hu- man existence: it is created, pro- jected, and followed by the indi- vidual and the group. It is the child of progress leading its par- ent. If necessity is the mother of invention, ideality is the father of progress. Ideality is the measure of intelli- gence; the higher the ideality the higher the intelligence, and the lower the ideality the lower the in- telligence. The higher the intelli- gence the greater the capacity for joy, and the higher the things to be enjoyed. Ideality and Instinct. — Animals reach their completeness in in- stinct entirely through inherit- ance, and they arrive at their per- fection in action through instinct or inherited ability. The completeness of man's exist- ence is subject to the modification of ideality, and progressive per- fection of his ability depends for the more part, if not entirely, upon bis ideality. The bee has neither contemplation nor ambition in the direction of cell building or honey gathering; he simply follows his instinct or impulse leading to a wise end, to perfection, without the power either to contemplate or enjoy that perfection. Through instinct birds master the air and navigate the water. Man also does many things through instinct; he walks by instinct, he speaks in- stinctively, but, this walking and speaking is added to through ideal- ity. Ideality enters into walking when we add to it poise and dig- nity of attitude and grace of movement. There are people, how- ever, who are so lacking in ideal- ity of attitude and action that they never learn how to stand properly or sit down gracefully. We instinctively eat, nut the pro- cesses of feeding one's self in order to rise above the gratification of the animal reaches into the realm of higher happiness. Ideality sup- plements our feeding processes with table manners, which lift the individual and the group into a field of aesthetic enjoyment. Through ideality man has mas- tery over the elements, an ever progressing mastery. Ideality is

50 IMPROVEMENT ERA the day-dream land of perfection, ideality substitutes choice for chance. Ideality never waits for things to happen, it plans for them to happen. Ethics and Ideality. — The qual- ity of the individual coming down the road to meet us depends upon our ideality, that person in time becomes a mental fact. It is the "I" of today that shall become the "Me" of tomorrow. "I" must meet this "Me." The "Me" I meet will never be better than the "I" which I send forward. In making the "I" one must do more than work to a pattern. The ambition to become just like someone else is at best not superior ideality. This ideality is only second grade. High grade character ideality has behind it an acquaintance with one's better self, and a determination to carry over into habit the saying of that illus- trious educator, Doctor Maeser, "Be yourself, your better self." The simple attempt to character- ize one's better self, which can be done only through our ideality, is a source of satisfaction. It is a joy for one to make an inventory of his good desires. Ideality and Marriage. — The mating instinct is responsible for more marriages than any other factor that leads to marriage; yet the stream of joy coming from love unions may be deepened and en- larged by the introduction of ideal- ity into courtship and marriage. On the one hand, the contempla- tion of what an ideal lover should be, such as he would like for a prospective brother-in-law, and on the other hand the contemplation of an ideal sweetheart, such as she would desire for a prospective sister-in-law, would bring court- ship to an altitude where the dust of iniquity never reaches. This field of ideality will lead over into the field of consistency where the contemplation of un- equal yoking is conspicuous for its absence. The college woman, whose choice of a husband proved something of a surprise to her as- sociates, met their amazement with the remark, "I am choosing for my children as well as for myself." She gave evidence of a consistency in ideality that carried over as a source of joy unknown except through the parentage of high- grade offspring. If it be true that great men have superior mothers, then the placing of high ideality into the choosing of a wife or a husband needs no argument. It has frequently been said that great women have great fathers and great men great mothers. Whatever operates towards the improvement of the race, either through heredity, environment, or education, contributes in the high- est sense, both as a source of joy and a factor of happiness, and it seems that ideality in mating does its full share. Ideality and Religion. — "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect." This does not mean a standstill perfec- tion according to "Mormon" doc- trine. All perfection is progres- sive. When we sing, "Thus on to eternal perfection, the honest and faithful will go," we mean thus on to progressive perfection. The religion, the doctrines of which

SOURCES OF JOY AND FACTORS OF HAPPINESS 51 make room for the exercise of trie highest ideality, is, at least, psy- chologically the best. As that which is most in harmony with the nature of man, and most pro- ductive of conditions of happiness for man is most desirable by the better self of man, it would follow that the religion which provides for man's becoming like God is the best for the man. The idealizing of ideality in our every day religious life is a process of heaven-making. It is a process of spiritual habit-making. One's religious character is measured by one's religious ideality and one's spiritual activity crystallized into habit. One may contribute to one's spiritual strength, which is always a source of joy, by listing the hab- its which constitute his individual spirituality, and the group habits which constitute the family spirit- uality. These should be measured by the desired spiritual condition which his ideality has created. Problems. 1. What will the streets of Salt Lake City and those of Boston say concerning the ideality of the first settlers? 2. Describe an ideal atttitude at the table. 3. How is the following scriptural ad- monition related to the development of ideality: "Let your apparel be the workmanship of your own hands"? 4. From a large number of answers to the question: "What is ideal vocational success?" the following was selected, as the best: "Doing so well what one likes to do, that he has no need to do any- thing else to make a living." 5. Wherein is ideality essentially indis- pensable to such a 'success? 6. Wherein does ideality provide for progressive perfection? 7. What is the distinction between completion and perfection? To which one of them isjideality a stranger and to which one is it a constant companion? 8. What reason had the great artist to weep when he had finished a painting 80 perfect that neither he nor any of his fellow artists could see how it might be improved? 9. How will good table manners add to the joy of the individual and society. 10. Wherein is your better self not completely characterized in the follow- ing: "My better self is sincere, kind, courteous, prompt, patient, industri- ous, temperate, generous, optimistic, clean, courageous." 11. Discuss the prospective happiness resulting from the mating of persons with high ideals. What are the probable re- sults of the marriage union? 12. Name the spiritual habits which would measure up to your religious ideality, (a) for the individual, (b) for the family. Lesson VIII. — Work. It must be understood that "work" in this lesson shall mean aimful activity, physical, intellec- tual, ethical, or spiritual. Theological Aspect. — And unto Adam he said, "Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it, cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread." The rebound of the Fall lifted Adam from the position of a care- taker to that of a garden-maker; it was a promotion. In the ready- made heaven of Eden he played upon a self-tuned harp of life. It was enjoyment without advance-

52 IMPROVEMENT ERA ment. The jar, a divinely planned circumstance, unstrung that harp and threw Adam from the position of a mere performer to that of a composer: the Fall was upward. Adam was not cursed but blessed with work. It was the earth that was cursed that he might have work. Work that was something more than employment, work di- vine, the work of bringing order out of chaos in all the kingdoms of earth life, vegetable, animal and man. A weed is but a plant out of place. Wheat becomes weeds when it interferes with the growth of beets. Man was to have work. Work into which optimistic ideal- ity could enter, work sustained by intention as well as by impulse, work in which initiative doubles the joy of achievement, work that makes of man more than a servant of divinity, more than a friend of God, a partner with God for the salvation of the one and the glory of the other, the eternal, progress- ive joy of both. The ignorance of the under* standing of God's purposes, mis- interpretation of his word, led to and has perpetuated the two er- rors of the ages: first, thinking and speaking of work as a curse, and, second, working to get out of work. Social Aspect. — Work is a good thing to have finished, but a better thing to be doing. The happiness of future salvation and the joys of exaltation are to be measured by standards of work, but there is a happiness here and now, happiness constantly coming through work- ing towards the expected reward in the hereafter; and just to the extent that the "now" is a part of eternity, this stream of present joy is a part of eternal happiness. It may be truly said of ideal working conditions, "Once a source of joy, always a source of joy." Work is thrice blessed ; it blesses in the planning, it blesses in the process, and it blesses the product. There is not standing room in the Church of Christ for the indo- lent; the Kigdom of God is a king- dom of industry. Community Aspect. — Unem- ployment is an open grave of com- munity progress, group indolence is the camp fire of congregating crime. Everybody busy spells uni- versal prosperity. Out of work, from a community point of view, means in danger. Public senti- ment that tolerates making a living by hook or crook furnishes a cul- ture bed for future criminals. The gabbling cobbler who led men about the streets to wear out their shoes and get himself into more work showed a method in his madness by which a street- corner loafer might profit. Contributions to the Individual. — The great apostle of work, Thomas Carry le, says: "There is a perennial nobleness and even sacredness in work. Were he nev- er so benighted, forgetful of his high calling, there is always hope in a man that actually and earnestly works. Blessed is he who has found his work. . . . All true work is sacred. Labor, wide as the earth, has its summit in heaven. Sweat of the brow, and up from that to sweat of the brain, sweat of the heart which includes all Kepler's calculations,

SOURCES OF JOY AND FACTORS OF HAPPINESS 53 Newton's meditations, all science, all spoken epics, all acted heroism, mar- tyrdoms— up to that 'agony of bloody sweat' which all men have called divine, 0 brother, if this is not 'worship' then I say the more pity for worship for this is the noblest thing yet discovered under God's sky." Work is the greatest refuge for those driven by despair; it is a field of forgetfulness of those things we would not remember; it is the prime minister of refor- mation, working changes with its magic touch which never can be wrought by the harsh hand of pains and penalties. Work is the tryst-tree of ideality and action, where mind and matter meet in a fulness of joy. Work demands sincerity, it develops the duty-doing power, it furnishes the conditions for fortitude. Loyalty to labor bespeaks fidelity to friends. Love for one's labor and pride in its products, these two things mark nature's noblemen. To do little means to grow little, to com- plete one's task and then more is a process of self-promotion. Vol- untary, over-time service is a prophecy of special recognition; it is a characteristic of superin- tendency. The manager of a large business, on being asked why he promoted a certain young person over many of senior service, said, "She promoted herself!" Work will win and winning is both a large source of joy and a strong factor of happiness. Work blesses the workerand the worked for. References Improvement Era, Vol. 9, n. 694; 11: p. 502, and especially Vol. 18 "A Song of Triumph," p. 565 ; also Markham's, "The Man With the Hoe." Problems. 1. What did God do with the earth in order to bless Adam with the opportunity for progressive occupation? 2. Out of which comes the most con- stant stream of joy: achieving or achievement? 3. Of what phase of work as a source of joy is the following an illustration: A person on her death bed said, "I am so glad that I have done what Temple work I have." 4. What is the word "work" to mean in this lesson? 5. Distinguish between service and servitude. 6. Discuss this problem: To unduly shorten the work-day means to lessen the stream of human happiness. 7. Wherein is an attitude against work anti-Christian? 8. What international condition exists today illustrative of the Shakespearian saying "Borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry?" 9. What are the dangers of unemploy- ment in communities? 10. What is the cost in the loss of pro- ductiveness per day for the maintenance for four million unemployed workmen? 11. How is the happiness of a nation affected by this condition in other ways than the financial loss? 12. In what other ways than want does unemployment interfere with the happi- ness of the community? 13. In what way do street-corner loaf- ers adversely advertise the community? 14. On the ground of providing for community happiness, justify the penaliz- ing of vagrancy. 15.— Wherein is it impossible to cheat an employer without cheating one's self? 16. Discuss work becoming drudgery (a) through an aversion in atttitude, (b) through excessiveness of task. T7. Which idea contributes most to the happiness of the race: There is enough for everybody to have, or there is enough for everybody to do?

54 IMPROVEMENT ERA Lesson IX. — Leisure. Introduction. — Leisure is a time at one's disposal to do what he pleases. Leisure activities are those engaged in when we have nothing to do. Leisure is pass time or time to be passed in following our inclinations. Labor has charge of our vocations, but leisure guides our avocations. Leisure time is not measured by the kitchen clock, not by the husiness man's chronometer; it is registered by the sun dial of recreation. Leisure is the excursion element of the journey of life. Ball playing to Babe Ruth is work; duty calls him to the bat. To the unpaifl player a ball game is leisure. To the dancing master the ball room is a field of labor, to the public it is a place of recreation, he must be there, they may be there; he has joy in his work, and happiness comes from his efforts in the form of satisfaction of achievement and in his financial compensation. They enjoy the acting; the motive of results is not at all associated with their performances; his is the operation of putting in time, theirs of passing time, yet he and they nay dance together. The Necessity of Leisure. — With- out leisure service may become servitude and duty degenerate into drudgery. "Alas, for maiden, alas for judge, For rich repiner and household drudge." Leisure ofttimes affords the only opportunity for culture. In his chapter on chosrng a vocation, the cui'ior of the Man of Tomorrow, points out the importance of con- sidering whether the vocation will afford the necessary leisure or not. The work hours, however full of enjoyment they may be, rarely, if ever, afford time for the contem- plation that is too frequently ab- sent from the lives of the masses. The courtesy demanded at the counter has not that heart throb quality which is made in the social circle during leisure hours. Leisure makes possible the avocation which often supersedes the voca- tion; and exceeds it in the de- velopment of efficiency, and in giving joy to the worker. It so frequently happens that one's apti- tude is found in leisure hours. It was leisure that delivered Franklin from the printer's devil and per- mitted him to play with the giant Electricity much to the joy of the world. Without leisure for the youth William Cullen Bryant, no Thana- topsis would have come to us. Had the Boy of Nazareth been kept at the carpenter's bench without res- pite, except to eat and sleep, his scriptural knowledge would not have astounded the theologians at the temple. Leisure provides for physical re- laxation. It has been well and truly said that change is rest, and one of the most recuperative forms of change is that from work to play, "My bow strung up too long will not shoot strong," said the In- dian hunter, when asked why he unstrung his bow whenever he sat down to rest while hunting. He may have been a savage but less of a simpleton than many an over- worked, over self-tasked civilian. It is a matter of common knowl-

SOURCES OF JOY AND FACTORS OF HAPPINESS 55 edge that exhaustion deflates or flattens the cells of the body. Leis- ure given to rest inflates by recu- peration the entire physical make up. Permitting even duty to drive unheedingly past the danger sig- nals of weariness, is like auto speeding with flat tires, rapid ruin is the result. Leisure gi\en to dis- sipation becomes a drug either over exciting or stupefying. A survey reaching over several years of close observation indicated the profit- ableness of paying miners seven days' wages for six days' work; pro- vided, they would rest physically and avoid all forms of dissipation on the seventh day. Employers, by sad experience, are forced to the conclusion thai a night out by the average employe is money out to the business, even though the worker may be "John- nie on the spot," as to the hours put in the next day. Leisure taken from duly is like the stolen fox hidden under the cloak of the Spartan youth, de- vouring the vitals of the thief. No one can enjoy an outing for an hour with the consciousness of hav- ing prematurely left his post of duty. His pleasure — fruit picked before its time is bitter. Leisure at the round table stimu- lates the student, improves the citi- zen, and shapes the statesman. See Doc. and Cov. 88: 78-79. Leisure at the card table is a time-killer. Even the idler, for whom there is no place in Zion, permits the moments to die peace- fully, while the card player kills them outright. Brigham Young, the pioneer leader and prophet of the Lord, declared when card play- ing was introduced as a camp-fire pastime, that he "would not lead a card-playing people." Leisure in the library lifts the lid of the treasure box of centuries, and gives us access to the thought- jewels of the ages. Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes addressed the li- brarians as, "Sexton's of those al- coved tombs where men in leathern cerements lie." Leisure in the gossip circle is the whetstone to sharpen the scissors of slander with which reputations are riddled. "There's so much bad in the best of us, And so much good in tne worst of us, That it doesn't behoove any of us, To talk about the rest of us." Leisure devoted to chariiy per- forms miracles at which mercy smiles, and justice nods approval. All who know him love the man who, when a youth, devoted holi- day hours to writing comfort c^.rds for the old folks of his community. The joy that came to him through his leisure-time efforts is still a joy; it is a part of his life's glory. Leisure as a sacrifice to labor in distress is a pathfinder for promo- tion. When necessity calls for overtime, and leisure is generously given, to lend a hand, labor finds a friend whom it lifts toward the top. An ounce of voluntary aid has more weight on the scales of merit than has a pound of demand- ed help, and leisure then makes generosity of time possible, and generosity is one of joy's purest fountains. Leisure given to loafing, adver- tises the sluggard, hurts his rela- tives, and hinders his community. There are few things, if any, that are more detrimental to a town

56 IMPROVEMENT ERA than groups of men gathered on the street corners to pass the time away. To such, home is a place to go when they can't go anywhere else. While one can not spend leis- ure in the library, at the round table, or a ball room where pro- priety prevails, without being made brighter and better, he can no more expect to come out of an unselect movie or a jazz ball-room without being mentally smeared, than he may hope to take a bath in a sewer and come out physically clean. Leisure is to life what dessert is to eating, over indulgence in either terminates with loss of the power to enjoy. The pleasure hunter is always on a rainbow chase. Who- ever makes leisure the object of life has turned his back on labor and taken up the trail of the "human being with nothing to do," at the end of which waits the dragon dis- appointment. Leisure with the camping kit, leads us into "God's first temples," puts mountain tops under our feet, holds over us the starry canopy that Abraham studied, gives us the laughter of rills, lets us hear the whisper of fragrance-laden breezes, and awakens within us the echo of the song of the soul, "Nearer, my God, to Thee." Mountain hiking means in more than one sense liv- ing the higher life. Years ago the organizer of the Young Men's Mu- tual Improvement Association, Ju- nius F. Wells, inspiringly uttered these words, "Every young man should stand on some mountain peak once a year." When we look back through his- tory we see that nations have gone wrong through making leisure a great objective; they have main- tained systems of slavery that some class might surfeit itself in pastime. The gladiatorial combats of Rome and the bull fights of Mexico are illustrative of the extent to which communities may go with degener- ate pastimes. It needs no argument to show the necessity of a constant struggle of the best in society, for temperance in leisure and decency in its employment. The "sane" fourth of July move- ment is a sample of what may be done towards lifting the leisure of a nation above danger. The taboo of evil is not to be derided as a reformatory force. The "not-do" is indispensable to progress, but stronger still is the potency of sup- plying the good. Substitution is the most effective means of elim- inating evil. Keep the good com- ing with a speed that shall consume the leisure moments as they come, and our pastime will become in the highest sense good times. Leisure and the Abuse of Indus- tries.— The mad rush for pastime is turning our industries away from the native born into the hands of the emigrant. Young America may say, "I won't work," the for- eigner is answering him, "I will work," and an inescapable destiny is putting our farms, stores, restau- rants, and many other enterprises into the hands of the foreigner who will soon be in a position to say to the native prodigal, "You would not work for yourself, now you must work for me." Leisure and the Sabbath Day. — Sunday is the Lord's day. When

SOURCES OF JOY AND FACTORS OF HAPPINESS 57 we recite, "Six days shalt thou la- bor, and do all thy work," let special emphasis be placed on the word, "thy," and then perhaps we may get the import of the sen- tence: "The seventh is the Sab- bath of the Lord thy God," When we remember how that on the first day of the week the promise of a resurrection became a reality, we may understand why it is with great propriety called the "Lord's day," a day for which he has made a program of procedure, the car- rying out of which, by the individ- ual and the community, will pro- tect both from degeneracy, and cause both to make progress with a maximum of speed and a minimum of discomfort. Sunday is not a day to do as I please, but to do as God pleases. And as to his pleasure, the Doctrine and Covenants, 59: 9 and 68:28 and Gospel Doctrine, pages 304, 305, are cited. Questions and Problems. 1. Define leisure. 2. Illustrate the distinction between leisure activities and labor. 3. Show the relation between avoca- tion and leisure. 4. What comes to us through leisure that we can not get any other way? 5. Name some of the abuses of leisure. 6. Why is it important that employers should know the favorite pastimes of their employes? 7. What has the prevailing pastime occupation of a community to do with the price of real estate and house rent? 8. What in your opinion are proper Sabbath day activities? 9. What activities are improper? 10. Show how leisure is spoiled by taking for it time that belongs to other things. 11. What would happen to the world if everybody let the love of leisure lead them? 12. Under what conditions is leisure a source of joy and a factor of happi- ness? 13. Discuss the responsibility assumed by deferring or refusing to rear a family, because the care of children interferes with the leisure of parents.