Tag: Happiness
We’re excited that you’ve joined the conversation! At HMU, we want to continue the great authors’ conversations in a contemporary context, and this blog will help us do that. We look back to Aristotle and the early philosophers who used reason and discourse to gain wisdom and now we endeavor to do the same every day.
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September 26, 2025
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
Recently, I attended a conversation on one of my favorite topics: happiness. The University of Chicago’s Graham School hosted author and professor Arthur C. Brooks in their Enduring Excellence series. I was fortunate enough to attend.
Interviewed by journalist and professor Tyler Mathisen, Brooks addressed many of the concerns of our age. The conversation began with questions of how Brooks himself stays happy and what happiness means to him.
May 2, 2025
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
While the Syntopicon includes happiness, it does not have a separate section dedicated solely to joy. I am curious about these emotions, how they might be similar or different. To me, joy seems more ephemeral, less permanent but more impactful whereas happiness is more of a state of long-term satisfaction.
According to Merriam-Webster, joy can be: the emotion evoked by well-being,
April 19, 2024
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
“You can’t ever reach perfection, but you can believe in an asymptote toward which you are ceaselessly striving.” – Paul Kalanithi
Last week, I attended an online conference hosted by The Atlantic. The “Health Summit” promoted discussions of: “the future of scaling innovation, sustainable solutions to improve patient care, and the complexity and opportunity in this revolutionary moment in health care.” They did not disappoint.
July 8, 2022
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
Happiness is of such importance that the Declaration of Independence uses it as a foundational principle. Considering its importance in my own society, one would think that I thoroughly understand the term. However, it is as slippery today as it has always been. Sometimes I believe that my own personal happiness is necessary because it will assist me to support those around me.
July 1, 2022
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
Breaks are necessary for both mind and body. However, taking a break does not necessarily imply idle behavior. Quite the opposite! When we have a break from our regular routine, we are able to do things the revitalize us. Rest allows for change which can recharge batteries drained from the rigor of the work week. Typically, humans enjoy puzzles,
June 10, 2022
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
“The hardest thing of all to see is what is really there.” – John Baker, The Peregrine
”Learning is a profession….” – Zena Hitz
2022 Fellow in Ideas David Yamada recently wrote a book review that inspired me. Per his suggestion, I quickly read Zena Hitz’s Lost in Thought: The Hidden Pleasures of an Intellectual Life.
May 13, 2022
Thanks to 2022 Fellow in Ideas, David Yamada, for today’s post.
Lost in Thought: The Hidden Pleasures of an Intellectual Life by Zena Hitz
As the humanities and social sciences face core threats fueled by higher education budget cuts and political divisions, they are conventionally defended on vocational and practical grounds. The liberal arts, so the argument goes, provide a strong grounding for successful careers by teaching students how to read,
Friday, May 6, 2022
Thanks to David Kirichenko, a 2022 Fellow in Ideas recipient, for today’s post.
Understanding your place in the universe is difficult. It requires facing, and then transcending, your deepest concerns, with death as one of our core fears. One day you will die. Everyone you know and love will die. All of us began aging from the day we were born, and death does not wait at the end of life’s road – it is with us throughout life’s journey.
April 5, 2019
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
Whiplash is a film from 2014 both written and directed by Damien Chazelle. It follows the life of Andrew (played by Miles Teller), a young, brilliant and ambitious drummer, through the trials and errors of college life. Fletcher (played by J.K. Simmons) is a strict, difficult music instructor who asks for as much as his students can give and more.
June 22, 2018
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
“Man wishes to be happy, and only wishes to be happy, and cannot wish not to be so.” – Blaise Pascal
Listening to Beethoven’s 9th Symphony recently got me thinking about the difference between joy and happiness. Why does Beethoven end the 9th with an “Ode to Joy?” Why not “Ode to Happiness?” So many authors have discussed the importance of the idea of happiness,