Samuel Johnson, the great 18th Century English man of letters, is the shrewdest teacher on the human condition I know.
“It is by studying little things,” he wrote, “that we attain the great art of having as much happiness as possible.” And he went on to write: “The main of life is made up of small incidents.” The fact is that too much of any bitterness in our lives comes from impossible expectations. Johnson was himself quick to irritability and despair but he saw clearly where the truth lay. The great sin to fight is “a refusal to be pleased,” with its sour determination always to find fault, always to look on the gloomy side of things, always to seek out the worst in people, always to criticise and put down the efforts of others.
The simple fact is that we have a duty not only to try and create good standards of personal performance and behaviour in and around our own lives, but also to enjoy, make the best of, what life offers us day by day and teach our children to do the same. There is really no other sensible way to live.
There is something else Samuel Johnson, that most sensible of men, wrote. He said that we should beware of those who cultivate the knack of feeling displeased at everything in life. At all times there have always been people who think it a mark of the highest cultivation to affect indifference and boredom and displeasure and disapproval as their basic outlook on life. The Earl of Chesterfield went so far as to advise that “there is nothing so illiberal and so ill-bred as audible laughter and applause.” Let us not listen to him.
We live in a world that seems to fear and distrust joy and enthusiasm about anything – indeed one that seems to go far towards denying their existence. It is an age when people focus on disaster and crisis and misfortune and set-backs and problems and the more of them the merrier. I think this may be partly due to the pervasive influence of the modern media which thrive on misfortune and disaster. “Count your blessings” was never the true journalist’s favourite creed. You don’t expect to see headlines like “999,999 plane flights out of 1,000,000 arrive safely” or ”Almost all Guyanese were not killed by lightning last year” or “A great majority of people set aside their cares and had a most enjoyable Christmas season.” For one thing headlines like these don’t attract much readership. But I think it is important to realize that such reports in fact reflect a large part of the truth about the world.
It is very easy to be critical in today’s world – so many things continue to be wrong and broken down and standards all around us are taking dismally long to recover and in some cases are continuing to deteriorate. It is so easy to be critical that we get into the habit of it, with the result that even when something is right we may be reluctant to say so openly. We grow addicted to negativity.
Let us try to escape from that syndrome. We certainly must speak up strongly when things are wrong – but at the same time I do not think we should ever turn our backs on what is positive or hopeful or promising or successful in our own lives and in the life of the country.
After all, examine your own life and I am sure that you will find many good things in it. It is folly to cultivate our powers of dislike and dissatisfaction to such a degree that we cannot find some enjoyment, some enchantment, some delight, some positive challenge in every day.
Think of the basic things that we tend to take for granted – ordinary, everyday things. Be glad of your good health if you have it. It is the greatest of blessings. Be glad of the fresh unpolluted air we breathe – that is getting to be a rare commodity in the world. Hundreds of millions of people live constantly in a murky, semi-poisonous haze. Be glad of the good climate we enjoy. When the bitter Northern winter hits our emigrants 99% of them yearn for Guyana’s sun and wind – cooled warmth.
Think of family and friends. If you have a good family life and good friendships that is infinitely valuable. No ambition, no achievement, no worldly power, no sack of gold can be compared with such things. Think of the simple things that you may have been fortunate enough to have been educated to enjoy and cherish – reading, for instance; the importance of family; the wisdom of old people whom should never be neglected; laughter and intelligent conversation; a hospitable circle of people meeting in goodwill; worship in freedom.
Think of the beauty of Guyana which extraordinarily few of us have even half begun to explore. I always consider this one of the puzzles of this country. I myself share a small holiday – weekend house up the great Essequibo beside the forest which is incredibly lovely and peaceful. I have been with well-travelled foreigners up there and they have marveled and said they have experienced nothing better anywhere in the wide world.
Things are definitely improving in Guyana but there will be a long period still when things are bad, when life is hard, when progress is badly delayed, when incompetence and corruption and unbelievable nonsenses continue to exist. In such a situation I never cease to commend the advice of Dr. Joyce Jonas in an excellent article I have always remembered.
“Where the moral and ethical values of a society offer no sure foothold, the solution has to come from within. The individual must create vales for himself. Courtesy, punctuality, a gracious manner, concern for others, refusal to speak negatively, cultivation of a loving home, honest work – these are some of the values you see in a few wonderful people you meet with every day. These values are the web of hope and faith they have woven for themselves in the moral emptiness of a changing society.”
In the end it comes down to private faith as well as private enjoyment – a strongly held private faith that life must be lived well whatever the circumstances. In this time of transition to a better public life – slow and hesitant though this transition may seem to be – what I think each of us should individually decide to do is create around each of our lives, through our daily efforts in whatever we do, a patch of honesty and efficiency and goodwill and helpfulness and creativity as far as we are able. We each can try to clear such ground every day of our lives until one day the patches will grow in number and extent and join and merge at last into a land that is bright again with promise and achievement.
