Happiness Lies in Being, Not Having

Neatly tucked inside a book called Oklahoma Boy, sitting on a dusty shelf in an antique store, these words have probably not been aired in many years, yet they jumped off the yellowed page with as much fervor and necessity as they day they were printed.

"Recently a circular portrayed a family of four with beaming faces and each loaded down with bundles of goods purchased at a department store - with this caption: "You get more out of life the American way!" It went on to say, "The American way is to open a credit account - Do it today and you'll begin to get more out of life...the American way!"

That, of course, is one way. But that is not the whole picture of life. There is love and kindness and poetry and beauty and heroic daring; they too, have meaning. Most people seem to think the primary interests of life are material. "How much did he leave?" we ask when some well-to-do man has died. He left all he had. It is not how much? The question is how true; how good; how beautiful; words which are honest, deeds which are just, purposes which are beautiful; these are the highest satisfactions in life.

You see, satisfaction lies not in having, not even in doing, but in being. Yet the idea of having has gone beyond the wildest dreams, and the idea of being is classed among the lost arts. To get the most out of life the human spirit must be something.

Some of the highest satisfactions in life may be found in creative work. Anyone who has ever entered into creative has found meaning and satisfaction in life for it comes out of work more than from any other thing. All great books, paintings, statues and musical compositions were achieved by those who lost themselves in their labors, and worked primarily for the joy in the work.

Consider the idea of creative sharing: In your day's work, can you spare a kindly word, a friendly greeting, a wave of the hand? These simple actions have magic in them.

Can the idea by the great Idealist, "If you lose your life, you will gain it," possibly be true? Some have tried it and have not been disappointed.

And you get more out of life by adventurous living. The reverence of the heroic has not died among us. There are still opportunities for adventurous living. They are not all confined to the exploits of the sea and the fields and the air.

Emotional agitations, resentment and violence are still to be curbed; criminal and lower temptations have never lost their power; hate is as deadly as before. What do you suppose would happen, if we should whole-heartedly give ourselves to truth, beauty, goodness as the one passion of our souls?"

by R.E. Dreger, printed in the Tulsa World February 16, 1969