"Seek ye diligently and teach one another words of wisdom;
yea, seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom;
seek learning, even by study and also by faith."
Doctrine and Covenants 88:118

"And the gatherer sought to find pleasing words, worthy writings, words of Truth."
Ecclesiastes 12:10



Wednesday, February 28, 2018

Havel - Good Mood 1

"If this good mood comes over me, I suddenly become very active and enterprising, I am full of élan, enthusiasm and energy, even for the kind of activities I normally avoid or at least try to put off.  Gone is my awkwardness, my distaste for dealing with things, asking for things or explaining things and even my occasional muted states in which I find it hard to express myself coherently and well.  To my surprise, I become supremely confident, bold, eloquent and perhaps even witty (though that is not for me to judge), I have a ready response to everything, I can deftly deflect a jocular attack, comment aptly on things around me, that is, in a way that does not demean myself, yet such that those around me can accept what I say, gratefully, even though it may not flatter them.  In short, I can take things the way I would like to take them always: spontaneously, maintaining the proper balance....
     Somewhere in the background of all this, however, is a feeling that I would say is the most profound source of any good mood, for anyone, at any time: that is, the feeling that one's life is fundamentally meaningful and the hope that is implicit within that.  It is a joyous identification with life.  And everything that a short while ago had still upset, angered or filled me with longing suddenly upsets me no longer."

Vaclav Havel
Letters to Olga

What Havel describes here as a simple 'good mood' verges on descriptions of mystical states and spiritual experiences.

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