Planning For Victory, Planning For Happiness

Submitted by tonyplant on May 24, 2006 - 18:11.

A lot of people ask whether Taking Our Pleasures Sadly is a british phenomenon. Apparently, my mother-in-law's response to any event such as taking an exam was to advise the candidate to pray to St. Jude (the patron saint of hopeless causes for those not in the know) and, having thus filled the person with confidence, instruct them to "hope for the best but expect the worst."

I was reminded of this today when I read about the fuss concerning whether or not England should put together plans for a World Cup victory parade. The Times expressed the matter admirably:

To hope for the best is one thing. But we British do not like to plan for success. There are good reasons. First, it goes against the national grain. We welcome triumphs, the more effortless the better. But we have tasted too much defeat on foreign fields to plan for victory. We bear the scars of dashed hopes. We know better. Secondly, and more pertinently in most people’s minds, to tempt the sporting gods is to invite inevitable disaster. And so, with wisdom and history on our side, we prepare mentally for the worst.

However, it could be argued that this is definitely one of the times for wearing your rose-tinted spectacles with pride if you are of a partisan persuasion and care about football.

 

My wife knows more about Anglo-Saxon literature than I do (no disrespect to her, but it has to be said that the average newborn and I share a similar level of knowledge on this topic) and she informs me that "Defeat, not victory, brought out the best in Anglo-Saxon poets. Discuss" is a popular exam question in courses that include Anglo-Saxon. Apparently, there was nothing quite like annihilation and the voluntary sacrifice of lives in the name of honour for stimulating creativity among long-dead poets.

We have tremendous sources of creativity that are untapped and may be mis-directed. What would happen if we diverted some of that creativity? If we re-directed it towards improving the happiness of ourselves and others? Happiness is significantly correlated with both health and longevity: it could make an even more significant contribution to people's lives than winning the World Cup.

Copyright 2006, Tony Plant Happystance Project

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