A New York Times Sunday Review op-ed discusses the frustrations of the wealthy and powerful ruler Abd Al-Rahman III, an emir and caliph of Córdoba in 10th-century Spain. “I have diligently numbered the days of pure and genuine happiness which have fallen to my lot,” he wrote. “They amount to 14.” So if plenty of money, sex, power and fame do not bring happiness, then how should we be living, asks writer Arthur Brooks.
He searches within his own equal amounts of happiness and unhappiness for a better “formula,” and comes up with love. “It requires the courage to repudiate pride and the strength to love others — family, friends, colleagues, acquaintances, God and even strangers and enemies,” he writes. “Easier said than done, I realize.”
Love People, Not Pleasure (New York Times Sunday Review, July 18, 2014)