Three Books on Positivity

I was reading a really good biography recently, Edward Klein’s Ted Kennedy: The Dream That Never Died, and early the book I was was struck by a certain passage.  It comes the moment when Klein recounts the Kennedy family receiving the news that J.F.K. had been shot.  

Ted and his sister Eunice hopped on a presidential helicopter and flew to Hyannis Port. There, they found Rose Kennedy walking alone on the beach. “Even when I heard Jack was shot,” she said, “I thought, these things happen. I never thought the first moment that it was going to be serious. I never think the worst.”

When I first read this paragraph, my jaw literally dropped. I have never encountered a more striking description of a fundamentally optimistic personality than this.  This was a woman who, having already lost two children to early deaths, remained upbeat even upon hearing that her oldest surviving child (who happened to be President of the United States) had been shot. How is this possible?

What I’m Reading: Julia Child Rules: Lessons on Savoring Life

One of the few classes I really liked in high school was Intro to Psychology (yeah, we were that kind of high school). I had a great teacher named Mr. Fischer, and he taught us all about Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. You’ve probably heard of this concept—that pyramid of life-related things that human being can’t live without (or, at least, not very well). Physiological needs like food and shelter are at the base of the pyramid, naturally, and “softer” needs like “self-esteem” are higher up. At the very top of the pyramid is something Maslow called “Self-Actualization,” which is just a fancy term for what the ancient Greeks called “flourishing”. Essentially, it’s that point where you’ve got enough of all the essentials and you’re able to pursue the things that really make you happy and improve the world. It’s what Joseph Campbell famously deemed “following your bliss”.

I remember that day in Mr. Fischer’s class when I sat there, a miserable teenager, and a light went on in my head: There are people in the world who actually get to do what they want. Ever since, I have sought out people who live their lives to the fullest, even as I have so often failed to reach that level in my own life.