Best of Week: Human connection and the epicureans

One quote that had always stuck with me was a quote by John Lennon that went, “When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy’. They told me I didn't understand the assignment, and I told them they didn't understand life.” 

This week in class, when we started to discuss about Hellenism, more specifically the epicureans, this quote magically popped into my head. Discussing about the epicureans made me wonder what it means to be truly happy and pleasurable. The epicureans believed that the greatest good is being happy and pleasurable and the greatest evil is pain. They also believed the way to attain pleasure was to live modestly and to gain knowledge of the workings of the world and the limits of one's desires. Trying to ponder about what makes me pleasurable and happy, the desire to attain pleasure to live modestly and gain knowledge of the working of the world reminded me of Edward Curtis and how photography made him staggeringly happy. My mind became a giant roller coaster ride, one thought leading to another.

            While pondering about Edward Curtis happiness, I realized the importance of human connection and how everyone is somehow connected to one another. Like the shadow catcher bracelet, all these philosophers are somehow connected. Socrates helped developed the ideas of Plato’s and many others.  Although every brain is wired different, we are somehow still very similar. Through Socrates, indirectly or directly, these other philosophers were able to grow their ideas and have their own view of the world.  

             You can see the views of these philosophies from ideas such as transcendentalism to religion. David Thoreau and Emerson ideas are very similar to Hellenism. Transcendentalism expresses the importance the nature of reality and expressing the importance of beauty. Even religion like Buddhism is very similar to the ideas of the epicureans. Buddhist believes life is suffering and that the greatest evil in the world is suffering. In order to endure the pain, desire must be curbed and serenity will help endure. Although Epicurus and Buddha where thousands of miles away from each other they have very similar ideas.

            There are no two humans alike, and every person is wired differently. Although we are very different we are very similar at the same time. By learning about Hellenism and the epicureans it showed me the greater importance of the human connection. An idea from thousands of years ago has the ability to influence anything to this day.