Quality of Life

Notes on an alternate world, a World Without Oil

Back before the world "ran out of oil" my wife and I adopted a philosophy that has made our life, especially our life in retirement, a good life. The basic principle is to always maximize our happiness. We focused on the quality of our life, not the quantity.

We find that in this new world, it is still a good philosophy. In fact, it is a necessary philosophy if we are to survive these times.

But the idea of always maximizing happiness must be tempered by a careful understanding of what maximizing means, what happiness really is, and some of the things that happiness is not.

If you are a mathematician you will understand when I say that the variable you maximize is the area under the good feelings curve, integrated over time. In laymen terms, that means you want to build up good feelings over time; collect as many as you can each hour. Being ecstatic for only one minute out an hour has a low value. Better to be half-ecstatic for ten minutes, or even just feel good for the whole hour. And if at all possible, avoid those times when your feel-good goes negative, turning into feel-bad.

If you are a pessimist or always look for the bad in things, you don't have many good feelings to collect, so your level of happiness will be low. But if you are an optimist and always look for the good in things, you collect a lot of happiness.

There have been times when I wanted to eat the whole pie, and when I was a kid, I did that a couple of times. Boy, did I get sick. How did it all come out? My total happiness was negative.

People who must get high on drugs or booze have very little happiness. For an instant they may feel awesome, but all the negative times that follow cancel out all those good feelings, and the net result is little or no happiness.

So how does this apply to a World Without Oil?

In a world of diminishing resources, it is better to go for the best than to go for everything you can get. You do not have to drive 1,000 miles to see beauty; it is outside your back door, or around the corner. You do not have to eat a double whopper with super-size fries; take it slow and enjoy a small salad. You do not have to fly to Paris for a vacation; take a hike in the local state park. You do not have to eat grapes grown in Chili; you can buy something special at the local farmer's market.

We are content living in 240 square feet of living space. Of course, we have the whole outdoors available to us. It is the quality of our living space that is important, not the quantity.

Those who are going out and working on missions, those who are learning new ways to do things, those who are learning how to get by on less, those are all the ones who are working at maximizing their happiness. I cannot promise that everything will be rosy, but at least those people don't spend their time being sniveling whiners and losers.

Do what you can to improve your quality of life, and find ways to maximize your happiness.

Try it, you will like it.

Sam
the Prudent RVer

Now you may be wondering why I should be waxing so philosophical. It is because I have found it too easy to sink into WWO and become so pessimistic I see everything as hopeless. But back here in the real world, there are things we all can do to make a difference. We can affect the future of our real world. It is not easy, but by maximizing your happiness in the real world and improving the quality of your life rather than building on the quantity you get, you can and will make a difference. Living for a while in WWO makes a person realize just how important that difference is. sjp

 

Comments

[Mérédith Stapleton]

Absolutely true.

One important thing is identity. Reading the booklet of the corsican "Master" I found many interesting insights, such as this one:

"If you indentify with your car, you are doomed.

If you identify with your career, you are doomed.

You are not what you think you are.

You are the one who ever was."

Not difficult to understand why it is so successful these days!

[Tomas L. Martin (Mia)]

Loving your comments. This post is so true. We have to keep optimistic - if we don't, what's left? Keep up the good work, I'm really enjoying your writing.

-Mia

OOG: and her author!