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Nov 13, 2006

"Normal day, let me be aware of the treasure you are ... Let me not pass you by in quest of some rare and perfect tomorrow. One day I shall dig my nails into the earth, or bury my face in my pillow, or stretch myself taut, or raise my hands to the sky and want, more than all the world, your return." --Mary Jean Iron

Stumbling On Happiness

Dan Gilbert is a psychology professor at Harvard, and author of Stumbling on Happiness. In his book, Gilbert skillfully and humorously explores the challenges we humans have in understanding what will make us happy. Gilbert maintains that in trying to imagine the future we make some basic and consistent mistakes. Just as memory plays tricks on us when we try to look backward in time, so does imagination play tricks when we try to look forward. Using cutting-edge research, much of it original, Gilbert points us towards the possibility that happiness is not really what or where we thought it was. Read an excerpt from the first chapter of his book here.