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1/12 During my downtime I am, like many at this time of year, reflecting on life and my happiness in it!
2/12 So many suggesting 2020 as one of the worst years in living memory, and understandably so. But for me, that wasn’t the case. In 2019 I lost my cousin, my best friend and my mother to cancer. All within around 12 weeks. 2020 was a kinder year for me.
3/12 The untold emotional stress that caused, and that I carry to this day, put any difficulties of 2020 into insignificance. But that’s just my perspective.
4/12 For Christmas I was given a book by Bill Bailey, in the book he shares his wisdom on a “remarkable guide to happiness.” It is proving a surprising interesting read.
5/12 Around 2,500 years ago the Chinese philosopher Zhangzi wrote “Supreme Happiness, perhaps the first ever work devoted to the subject. He favoured embracing the mysterious side of life - the unexpected.
6/12 His advice is not to dwell on whether anything is good or bad, but just to inhabit the moment, embrace the way of nature and dwell in its unity.
This sounds great, I’m sure we’d all love to contemplate a butterfly fluttering in a forest, but not always practical.
This sounds great, I’m sure we’d all love to contemplate a butterfly fluttering in a forest, but not always practical.
7/12 A little closer to the present time the Irish Priest and philosopher Francis Hutcheson wrote in 1725 a treatise entitled “An Inquiry into the Original of our ideas of beauty and virtue.”
8/12 In it he posited the idea that happiness should be less about gratification and pleasure, and more about civic responsibility.
9/12 Interesting, I’m sure. Yet here I find myself in a paradoxical juxtaposition. In my new role with the police I find myself more fulfilling Hitcheson’s thesis, as my role as PCSO will of course be more akin to civic responsibility than meditating in a forest.
10/12 But, I also do enjoy the sense of meditation through prayer. But the juxtaposition part is that here on this account I am anonymous (I think about 4 actually know me) and in my other social media accounts no one knows about my policing path I am undertaking.
11/12 So two worlds, approach life from different perspectives and yet, for security, among other reasons, never the Twain shall meet. It’s like living on two continents. Different culture, different language, if similar values.
12/12 And all in some strange way, all in the pursuit of happiness. Will they be mutually exclusive?
Time will tell, watch this space...
#JourneyofaPCSO
Time will tell, watch this space...
#JourneyofaPCSO
Thanks to @BillBailey for one of my Christmas reads.
