It is a warm summer day
with a clear blue sky
and white fluffy clouds floating by;
I am
walking down my home street
and enjoying the cool summer breeze
blowing over my body
cooling me down;
I am enjoying
the sight
of front-yards with tall trees and shrubs of many varieties,
the sight of two storey mansions with designer architecture,
the sight of neatly mown lush-green front lawns;
I am enjoying
the auditory experience
of a quiet peaceful neighbourhood,
with a gentle breeze rustling leaves on trees
and birds tweeting
around my quiet home street;

I feel
Nice-Neighbourhood-Happy.

The so-called philosopher
Friedrich Nietzche writes:
"Wherever I found a living thing,
there found I Will to Power ...
to the stronger the weaker shall serve".

In an ideal
joy-and-happiness-society
would every person
be compassionate and cooperative
to every other person
instead of domineering and exploitative?
To achieve joy and happiness
in society
must we be
not domineering and exploitative
but compassionate and cooperative?

There comes a time at night
when I am too tired to pretend
to be what others want me to be
and can be only myself;
late night is a time
when it is easier to discover
who I am.

Is there joy
in noticing the details of experience?
For example:
When I encounter a flowering tree
I enjoy noticing
all the colours, shapes, sizes and textures
of every flower,
every leaf,
every fruit,
every branch,
and the bark of the trunk too;
Then I have enjoyed
experiencing the flowering tree!

Orange-Juice
tastes nice:
sweet,
hydrating,
with tiny nourishing pips
which squish on my tongue
as I swallow.

I was an outcast
in school
nobody liked me
I had no friends
noone to talk to
noone to share my experiences with
noone to understand me
noone to learn from
noone to help me
I was alone
and lonely
and sad.

Now, reflecting on my memories
of my outcast loneliness
I am relieved from my trauma
by expressing to myself my lonely sadness
as I’m doing in this poem,
and reminding myself that my school-days are in the past
and re-focusing on being in the present-moment
and striving for my joy and happiness.

The challenge of enjoying
tasty and nutritious
food and drink
is not to overeat.

When I am in pain
I have discovered
calmly introspecting
gains me self-awareness of my pain,
and helps me achieve acceptance
of how the pain is happening;
and then calmly expressing my pain
in words
enables further self-awareness of my pain,
diminishes the psychological-energy of the pain,
and helps me endure the pain
calmly.
Is it the same way for you?

I just watched a news report:
In southern Pakistan
a mother cries sitting on a hospital bed
watching over her malnourished daughter
who is laying in bed dying.
The mother sobs uncontrollably
as her 3 year old daughter
slumps after her last breath.
The child’s father
wraps his daughter’s limp body
in a blanket
and carries her out of the hospital room
in which scores of other malnourished children
lay dying.

I am left wondering:
Is there something we can do
to feed the malnourished children
in Pakistan
and around the world?

Patient-Endurance is the virtue I need
when striving to improve the situations
which Destiny has brought me,
for while the situations
are not yet improved
I need to patiently endure.

When my emotions and thoughts are racing
out of control,
I record a voice diary
using my computer microphone;
I express freely
every emotion and thought
as it arises in my mind
without censorship;
I cry, sob, wail, scream -
but as I dry my tears
all the emotions and thoughts
that were pent up inside me
waiting to explode
are now dissipated
and I achieve peace of mind.

I am optimistic
that Destiny
will reveal to my mind
the answers and solutions
as I continue to ask Destiny
philosophical-questions
about how I can achieve
joy and happiness
within the situations
Destiny is bringing me.

I just watched a news report:
13 million people are hungry
in the Philippines
and cannot afford three meals a day.
I watched a grandmother
picking through others’ garbage bags
to find food waste:
She found a half-eaten chicken
partially-decomposed
and took it home to feed her grandchildren
for whom she is the sole provider
after her husband died
and as the children’s parents look for work.
The brave responsible grandmother says
“Life is hard”
as she smells the stench of the decomposing chicken
then boils it to **** the bacteria
then fries it with a little onion
to improve the rotten taste.
Her four hungry grandchildren
sit quietly around the small dining table
eating the partially-decomposed chicken.
The heroic grandmother says
“the stench of the food
is something you never get used to
but life is hard
it’s either rotting food
or nothing.”

I was left thinking:
Is there something we can do
to feed the hungry
in the Philippines?
Is there something we can do
to feed the hungry
around the world?

When we dialogue
I pose questions
which interest your mind
and evoke in your mind
answers
which are clues to my mind
about what my answers could be
to how to achieve my joy and happiness
and the joy and happiness of all people.

I appreciate you
and our dialogues,
Philosophy-Friend.

When we dialogue
you pose questions
which interest my mind
and evoke in my mind
useful answers
that I can use
to achieve my joy and happiness
and the joy and happiness of all people.

I appreciate you
and our dialogues,
Philosophy-Friend.

As I gaze at a cherished photographs
of my youthful travels,
I review the experiences
I enjoyed while they were happening
and now reviewing and savouring
the details of the experiences
I enjoy the experiences again.

I just watched a mini-documentary
on pig factory farming using
extreme confinement of individual pigs
in ‘gestation crates’:
I saw each poor pig
trapped within metal box-grates
which pressed against their flesh
stopping the pig from turning around
stopping the pig from walking around,
each pig suffers their whole life
standing in one direction
or slumped down on the ***** floor.
I saw pigs with open wounds, pressure sores, infections,
bleeding gums from biting the metal bars.
I saw pigs screaming in distress
Or suffering slumped down depressed.
I saw trapped pigs going mad
banging on the metal grates
distressedly trying to break free
and failing and slumping down depressed.

I ask myself
is there a humane way
to farm animals?
Such as free-range farming?

I am
eating a slice of hot aromatic pizza
and as I gently chew
I savour the taste of
red salami slices,
folded thin sheets of pink ham,
red diced tomatoes,
seedless black olives,
and slices of brown mushrooms;

As I experience
the delicious tastes
of pizza
I am Pizza-Happy.

I play jackstones
to relax and rejuvenate:
I hold one stone in one hand
with 4 stones on the floor,
then I throw the one stone in the air
and before I catch it
I grab off the floor as many of the 4 stones
as I am able to
then catch the one stone too.

Playing jackstones
is the simple joy
of enjoying the agile exercise of my hands
and enjoying focusing attention like meditation
on my hands and stones
instead of focusing on my struggles and sufferings.

While playing jackstones
I am simply enjoying
being alive, and
I am happy.

Poetry is like flowers
growing in the trees;
Poetry is like flowers
fragrant in the leaves;
Poetry brings sweetness
to philosophy;
Poetry leads people to think
what life means?

Writing a poem
read by friends
who smile
laugh
cry
think
feel
what I wrote.
And talk to me
about my poem.

When I try to control
people and things
with power
and forceful measures
I experience frustration, sorrow and suffering.

When I accept
the situations Destiny has brought me,
and strive to discover opportunities
to be joyful and happy
within these situations,
and strive to discover opportunities
to improve these situations
to increase my joy and happiness,
then I experience joy and happiness.

I need
to continuously practice
responding to situations
according to my best principles of wisdom
because continuous practice
improves my skill
at striving for joy and happiness
in a wise way.

God
I appreciate
everything
you have given me.

I prepare for the worst
so that when it comes
I have wisdom
about what do do
to survive
and decrease my suffering
and increase my joy and happiness.

In my youth
I pretended to be
what I thought others’ thought
was prideworthy and praiseworthy,
and I was unjoyful and unhappy
self-annihilating my authentic self.

Now I am older
and I realise
only by being my authentic self
and striving for joy and happiness
using my authentic self
can I be joyful and happy.

People called him
short, stout, comical-looking,
but I felt compassion for him
and I wondered
what experiences
would give him
joy and happiness?

When I was a youth
I did activities
for the purpose
of gaining experience;
Now that I’m wiser
I do activities
for the purpose
of gaining
joy and happiness.

To experience
Joy and Happiness
is the purpose of life,
so don’t
focus on anything else;
Focus only
on striving
to experience
Joy and Happiness.

Jim, Clara, Lizzie, and Tim
are sitting comfortably
around a work meeting table
drinking delicious coffee and
eating delectable sandwiches
which their manager provided for free;
these employees love their manager.

Jim, Clara, Lizzie and Tim
area engaged in a ‘Quality-Circle’:
A group of employees
who meet regularly
to consider ways of improving
their workplace.

Jim, Clara, Lizzie and Tim
conceptualise themself
as not slaves but cooperators
with their manager
to improve
the functioning of their workplace
for the benefit of the employees,
and the benefit
of the shareholders, customers, suppliers
management and
their whole society.

Jim, Clara, Lizzie and Tim
are exercising joyful creativity
to identify problems
and discover solutions
which they will diligently implement
to improve their workplace,
to increase their joy and happiness
in their workplace:
by increasing ease of their work,
by increasing efficiency of their work,
by improving quality of their work,
by increasing productivity,
by increasing customer satisfaction,
by improving environmental impacts,
by increasing profits.

Jim, Clara, Lizzie and Tim
realise that a continuously-improving
well-functioning workplace
provides them secure and enjoyable employment;
so, participating in the joyful creativity
of a quality-circle
striving to continuously improve their workplace
makes them feel
joyful and happy.

Quapaw is an extinct language
of an American Indian tribe
of Arkansas U.S.A.

I wonder
how many other languages
have humans spoken throughout history
which are now extinct?

I wonder
what secrets
did these lost languages contain
about how to live
a joyful and happy life
within Destiny?

Quiet solitude
is freedom
from others' demands,
is freedom
from the noises of the world.

In quiet solitude
I can focus introspectively
on my emotions and thoughts,
becoming more self-aware,
and discovering
how to improve my mind-functioning
towards optimal joy and happiness.

Is a ‘reaction’
an initial impulse to act
after an experience?
Do reactions
get us into trouble
when we act out the impulse
without first self-introspecting,
becoming aware of emotions and thoughts,
self-evaluating emotions and thoughts,
and self-correcting emotions and thoughts?
For example:

A toddler cries
then her mother slaps her hard
then regrets the slap
when her toddler cries more miserably.

A youth insults a man at a bar
then the man punches the youth hard
knocking him to the floor unconscious
struggling to breathe,
then the man regrets the punch
and regrets getting arrested even more.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
says we are all endowed with Reason,
but what do we mean by ‘Reason’
in everyday life?

Is Reason:

Logically relating concepts?

Or

Being strategic
in pursuit of selfish interests?

Or

Philosophically discovering
wisdom
about what practical activities to do
to achieve joy and happiness?

When my mind is caught in the past
regretting my errors
with sadness, disappointment, repentance,
I re-focus on the present-moment
leaving behind in the past
the self I was when I committed errors;
And I focus my attention
on evaluating the self I am
in the present-moment,
striving to improve my self
into the wisdom I need
to achieve joy and happiness
in the present-moment.

Should I ‘respect’ a person
because they have the power
to harm me?
Or,
Should I respect a person
because they are able and willing
to help me
achieve my joy and happiness?

When striving
for joy and happiness
becomes fatigue with stress,
do I need
rest and rejuvenation?

I just watched a news report
about ‘Direct-Air-Carbon-Capture’
which removes carbon dioxide (CO2)
from the Earth’s atmosphere
to reverse climate change:
Big fans **** in air
which is passed through liquid
which absorbs some carbon dioxide (CO2)
then the CO2 is extracted from the liquid
by chemical reaction to form
solid pellets of calcium carbonate,
thereby removing CO2 from the atmosphere.

One Direct-Air-Carbon-Capture (D-A-C-C) plant
can extract 1 megaton of CO2 every year
from the atmosphere –
which is equivalent to 40 million trees;
It would take 40,000 D-A-C-C plants worldwide
to stop further climate change.

I wonder
when will global society
become desperate enough
to avoid bad climate change events
like cyclones, droughts, floods
that governments will spend the money
to build these 40,000 plants
and save us all from climate change.

I need
to frequently revise
my principles
for living
a joyful and happy life
so that when challenges come
I’m ready to respond
in a wise way.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
says we have the right
to life, liberty and security of person.

When I have the right
to life,
do you have the duty
to keep me alive?

When I have the right
to liberty,
do you have the duty
to give me liberty?

When I have the right
to security of person,
do you have the duty
to give me security my person?

I am
molecules of water
flowing
within the river
of Destiny.

Does a joyful and happy romance
require trust
between partners?

A female concert pianist
is playing at Carnegie Hall in Manhattan
Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata and
Debussy’s Clair de Lune and
other romantic melodies
which soothe the aching modern hearts
of her modern urban audience.

She’s 35 and still unmarried.
She’s never met a romantic man
who loves her
like she enjoys being loved:
Romantically like the Moonlight Sonata and
Claire de Lune.
It’s difficult to find a loving husband
in an unromantic world.

During the concert
in breaks between playing pieces
she longingly scans the audience
for a handsome romantic single man
who’s waiting to love her
like she enjoys being loved:
Romantically like the Moonlight Sonata and
Clair de Lune;
but all she sees are couples, mostly old.
It’s difficult to find a loving husband
in an unromantic world.

After the concert
on the taxi-ride to her hotel
the bubble of romantic melodies has burst
and she inures herself once more
to the modern car-horns and truck-roars
of busy city streets.
It’s difficult to find a loving husband
in an unromantic world.

She gazes out the taxi window
at modern urban pedestrians
hustling and bustling on crowded sidewalks
rushing to their business appointments
ambitious for their career success.
It’s difficult to find a loving husband
in an unromantic world.

When I feel sad,
what should I do?
Does discovering something to do
which makes me joyful and happy
increase my joy and happiness?
Like walking in a park?
Like eating tasty-nutritious food?
Like reading and writing poetry?

My economics textbook says
resources, products, services are scarce
and should be distributed by market-relations:
those who can afford to pay money
get the resources, products, services
and those who cannot afford to pay money
do not get the resources, products, services;

But I think
my economics textbook
has a scarcity-mentality
which looks only to the short-term;

I think
the human aspiration
should be
over the longer-term
to strive with optimism to achieve
an abundance
of resources, products, services
distributed by market-relations and by any way
so that every person
can get enough to be happy.

Is science
about discovering
how an unknown Destiny
is happening?

Is science
useful as information
to develop philosophical-wisdom
about how to achieve
joy and happiness?

For example,
if medical-science says
fatty-cholesterol is bad for health,
is philosophical-wisdom
to eat less fat
to improve health
to optimise joy and happiness?

The challenge of living
is to search for opportunities
in my current situation
for joy and happiness.

The challenge of living
is to search for opportunities
to improve my current situation
to increase my joy and happiness.

Is self-awareness of
my emotions and thoughts
necessary
to improve my emotions and thoughts
into wisdom
about how to achieve
my joy and happiness?

In an ideal
joy-and-happiness-society,
would every person
humanely
care for
their own feelings
and the feelings
of every person
in their society?