After my newsletter last month discussing Eudaimonia, an insightful reader who always asks interesting questions and is also teaching a university class on “Economics and Life,” posed the question “Is happiness the primary goal of a good life?” Or i this push for happiness leading us down the road of the comfort fail? This question segues nicely into some topics that I have been throwing around in my head all month. Happiness in itself is a highly subjective term, one which I actually dislike as it is most often a terrible attempt to quantify and measure our lives or situations. Oftentimes, the media and advertising sources (which pretty much shape the face of our society these days) make us believe happiness is the key to a good life, and not having to deal with much or exert oneself is the key to happiness. I would argue this is the furthest from the truth, especially as I think back most fondly on the times of my life where I worked the hardest and embraced discomfort. I have also been reading from my shelf of “old books that I keep putting off” and Dante seemed to poetically hit on this topic quite well.
In Inferno, the first book of Dante’s Divine Comedy, he describes the several layers of Hell, but the Fourth Circle of Hell, that of Acedia, stands out. Acedia is described in the Bible as sloth, while others refer to it as a lack of zeal and fire, excessive apathy, couchism (i.e. too much couch time), or according to the philosopher Thomas Aquinas, simply not caring enough or being a pushover out of convenience (my translation). Modern society prescribes this as comfort – something we desire at all times – and tells us how natural and normal it is to spend the majority of our waking hours staring at a screen, whether our TV, computer, or phone. Acedia will oftentimes and eventually lead to despair and resentment, followed by disengagement from reality to varying degrees.
“One of the marvels of the world: The sight of a soul sitting in prison with the key in its hand.”
-Rumi
The ancient philosophers knew this all too well and spent considerable time discussing ways to avoid acedia. The ancients knew that excessive comfort, sloth, acedia – whatever you want to call it – was not the means to a healthy or fulfilling life. Others have come to realize this over the years as well. Even the definition of acedia, which initially was used as the word referring to the deadly sin of sloth, has transformed from physical laziness to a lack of caring and apathy. The ancients knew that the push for comfort was always only several small steps away from a lifestyle that may sound pleasant in theory, but would leave us less fulfilled, less healthy, and on the victim list of acedia. Even Aurelia knows this, which is why she is deadlifting with perfect form in the picture above.
According to Kathleen Norris, who wrote an entire book on acedia:
“Acedia is a bad thought, it’s a passion that is opportunistic, just like this virus. It will strike just when we’re at a low point, our immune system is down, because we’re feeling anxious and tired and restless and bored and sad about how things used to be — and all of those things are classic signs of acedia.”
Acedia and Pushing Comfort Aside
There are many translations and definitions of the word acedia, but it is clear that acedia is lack of purpose, lack of ikigai and the polar opposite of an Intentional Lifestyle. Without acedia, health is nearly impossible, and while the modern prophets and cultural voices may tell us it is the path to happiness, reality paints a much different picture.
Adding insult to injury is the fact that sloth back in the ancients’ time must have been much harder to achieve – without cars and other modern luxuries, one had to walk everywhere and engage in much activity simply to live as there were no cars, microwaves, sinks, running water, or dishwashers. Nowadays, we often need apps and wristbands to poke and prod us to move more and turn the drive for what were once normal activities into a game (a finite game) to coax us into performing a mere fraction of the activity that used to be part of normal life. It is no surprise that as one modern device makes us lazy (TV, computers, and our phones) other modern devices that we can purchase, of course, are there to miraculously save us from sloth! This modern desire for comfort helps to explain why people go to the gym and do little that will actually help them. They want to feel good about themselves and they are told the gym is important, so they go. Yet, here they are faced with the paradox; they want to remain comfortable, so they don’t push themselves and avoid anything difficult. And, how many people do you observe at the gym, walking only briskly enough on the treadmill so they can still manage holding their phone in hand to send out texts or scroll through Instagram pictures?
The Epicureans are perhaps most famous for their idolization of comfort, and their entire philosophy on life depending on it. While their name more commonly adorns restaurants, food companies, or desserts (Epicurean delights!) their belief system was one that revolved around the view that the goal of human life was happiness. Furthermore, this happiness included total absence of mental and physical pain. In other words, to the dismay of Dante, happiness required a whole bunch of sloth.
While Epicurus wisely advised his pupils to avoid politics by all means possible (certainly a requirement for happiness and sanity thousands of years ago, nowadays, and a thousand years in the future) and felt it was wise to keep an open mind regarding occurrences in nature that were unable to be decisively verified, some may find it difficult to find benefits of the Epicureans beyond that. Fast-forwarding thousands of years, I strangely now find that this push for comfort has actually led people in the opposite direction, as they are spoon-fed advertisements for product after product that they “need” to be more comfortable in life, many of which leave them financially in the hole and working in an uncomfortable job for more hours than they would ever require to pay for these objects of comfort. Coincidentally, those three screens mentioned above (you know, those ones that modern society tells us are perfectly normal to stare at all day) also coincidentally bombard us with ads for these products.
“The cult of passivity and so-called relaxation is one of the most dangerous developments of our times. Essentially, it too may represent a camouflage pattern, the double wish not to see the dangers and challenges of life and not to be seen. We cannot escape all the tensions that surround us; they are part of life, and we have to learn to cope with them adequately and to use our leisure time for more creative and gratifying activities.”
-The Rape of the Mind, by Joost A. M. Meerloo, M.D.
Thinking back on ancient wisdom, I find it incredibly interesting that these days the push for the almighty comfort has become a worshiped element of society. Perhaps this helps explain why religious scholars and philosophers of the past focused on acedia so often – they knew of its dangers and tendency to become a false idol. As I think back to my most cherished times, they are far from ones dominated by comfort. While some of our most amazing trips to Italy or the day we got engaged in Cahors ended with a delicious meal and deep dark glass of wine, it was only after we hiked almost 20 miles along the Lot River.
Comfort is nice, but the great things in life require some work. This is such a valuable lesson and simple philosophy that is all too often overlooked. Put your health at the top of that list.
We did not take any pictures during our 10 mile walk because we were, well, enjoying our walk, but it was down there.
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