A Way to Die Happily

Death and taxes, as someone has pointed out, are inevitable. But happiness is not. Particularly when it concerns dying. We are into life-prolonging mechanisms of all sorts, including practicing bizarre medicine, prayers, and the like. Not to mention body-freezing and other 'scientific' methods.

But this is not about prolonging life. It is about being happy while you die. Unfortunately, it is not a theory I developed. I am merely narrating it, in my own words. It is from an essay by Umberto Eco, probably translated from the Italian.

You must think of everyone else in the world as a fool. Except you. But this must not happen too early in life. My view is this is where we go wrong. Anyway, why?

We will never be happy if we think that all that we are going to miss is really good/worthwhile. Then we wouldn't want to go. The people, places, things that we leave behind must seem worthless. That would make us happy. But if that happens too early, then we wouldn't enjoy life. Gradually, over a period, we must therefore develop a 'superiority complex', if I may paraphrase Eco. And feel happy that we are going beyond it all.

For details, refer to his original writing. As a theory, it makes sense, don't you think?

How to be Idle and Umberto Eco

I came across Umberto Eco, an Italian author, through a book called Faith in Fakes recently. He has a different style and the content is very interesting too. Probably Italian translated into English. Essays on many things like real art versus fake or proxy art, the view that all spectator sport is a waste of time (unlike individuals playing something for health, fun, etc.), and a lot of other intellectual discussions abound in this book. An interesting idea is that people congregate at events like talks, lectures, not for the speaker/entertainer, but to "do it" as an in thing, to be a part of a whole- hope I am conveying this correctly. (classes at IIM Indore excluded!)

Another good book I just started on is "How to be Idle". This has a take off on Einstein and his anti-idling ways- if he hadn't invented the light bulb, life would have been simpler and stress-free. We would all have slept at night and worked in the daytime, according to the author. Many more gems like this in it. An interesting and hilarious read.