How to be happy though human / by W. Béran Wolfe.
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- Publication/creation
- London : George Routledge, 1932.
- Physical description
- xiv, 374 pages ; 22 cm
- Contributors
- Wolfe, W. Béran 1900-1935.
- Notes
-
This edition was reprinted in 1933, 1934, 1935, 1937, 1942, 1944, 1945, 1946 and 1948.
Copy 1 Note: 1937 reprint. X158203
- Attribution and usage
-
Wellcome Collection
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view things in terms of their usefulness or uselessness to
us in attaining our goal. Three men pass a huge oak in a
forest. One says, “ I could build a fine mast for my boat
out of that trunk ! ” The second says, “ I could tan
hundreds of shoes with the bark of that tree ! ” The
third says, “ The acorns of that tree would feed all my
pigs ! ” Each has had the same experience but each
has valued it in terms of his own goal and his own
personality pattern.
10. There are three great groups of problems which every
individual must solve in the course of his life. These problems
are the problems of society, of work, and of sex. They may be
likened to the three great rings of a huge circus, in which
evervone of us must “ do his act ”. Because of the close
J
interconnection of all human life it is no private matter
whether we solve these problems. Every time we fail to
solve a problem our fellow-men must assume a heavier
burden ; every time we make a mistaken solution, our
neighbours or our children suffer. If we refuse to
cooperate, and evade the obligations of humanity, we are
denied the fruits of being human by the workings of an
inexorable natural law. Those who are afraid to do their
“ act ” in the main three rings of life are usually to be
found in the side-shows of life, rationalizing their
conduct to themselves and attempting to deceive the
world by shifting their responsibility to some scapegoat.
Such self-deception and evasion of responsibilities is
usually the product of fear and ignorance of the meaning
of life.
11. The sum total of the tools and techniques an individual
uses in the pursuit of his unconscious goal in life constitutes his
character and personality. Character traits are always
relative, and must be interpreted in relation to the
individual pattern of conduct, never as absolute entities.
Apparent contradictions in character or changes in
personality may signify either a change of goal, or the
pursuit of the same goal in a different environment.
The well-adjusted man or woman is honourable,
sincere, optimistic, sympathetic, friendly, self-confident,