THE EDITOR, Sir:In the It's Your Health section of The Gleaner of February 2, 2005, Dr. Wendel Abel contributed an article captioned 'What is Happiness?'. While I agree with much of what he wrote, there is one sentence which I think should not go unchallenged.
Dr. Abel prescribes 'Stop living for others and start living for yourself'. I understand that this must be taken in the context of the whole article including the preceding sentence which allows that it is good to make sacrifices for others. However the main premise seems to be: live for yourself FIRST!
I do not think this is a sound prescription for happiness. Self-centred living has never produced that precious commodity. The pursuit of happiness as one's main goal usually proves unsuccessful. An ever increasing number and variety of ingredients and methods are employed in the frustrating effort to capture it.
Perhaps surprisingly, however, happiness seems dependably to come as a by-product of the life well-lived, where virtues such as love, humility, honesty, integrity and service bloom out of a right relationship with God and bring good things, including happiness, to others.
I am, etc.,
DR. CHARLES A. ROYES
UWI, Mona
