13. Where is happiness, is it far from here?

 What is a man, a woman? You are, I am what we do, what we think of, what we read, what we love. I am free so ultimately I am what I do. 

And what I do in a repeated way constitutes a habit. And I can do good things, or otherwise evil things. I can build up virtues or otherwise vices. I can be an honest, hard-working, loving, attentive, generous, committed, friendly man, or otherwise all the contrary. Well, also I do good and bad things, as any person does. 

You can find about this in old Aristotle, or in more modern Jutta Burggraf. A happy man or a happy woman are the ones that have virtues, that act in accordance with human dignity, and we are (let’s not forget it) sons and daughters of God. 

And we can let God lead our boat, the one each person is. I can let God direct my life: I can count on him. Once someone told Saint John Paul II he was an atheist, and the Pope responded, You feel so bad when you don’t have God! 

We can feel and be happy, that’s today’s good news, it’s up to what we do with our lives. And we can change our surrounding world into better with our daily acting! 

We can make the people we live with so happy. Because every man, every woman loves someone: love is paramount for our happiness. Man and woman need to love someone else. We are like designed to love, and we have to love ourselves, sure thing, but also we could sadly end up loving ourselves in an egoist and selfish way. 

We are what we do and what we love. And what we pursue to be: also you can age being a nice old person or a grouchy old fellow, it’s up to you. 

But just catch the good news, anyone is free and ultimately responsible of how he or she behaves. And we are not alone in this course, for we can count on God. He is not like an abstract fate, but a loving father I can talk to and with.  

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