“To be happy at home is the ultimate result of all ambition.” Dr. Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)
By: Gabriela Yareliz
This Dr. Johnson was way ahead of his time. This week has felt so weird. Started with food poisoning, a truck soaked me on my way to work— you could have wrung my pants and all that dirty puddle water would have filled a bucket. The city is such a mess; I have had to hop over at least four homeless people to get to where I need to go and a giant dead rat in the middle of the Times Square station. I have felt stressed. Who hasn’t? Some days and weeks you regret leaving your bed. You just want to sleep and stay in the safe cocoon of four blankets.
In addition to reaching for gratitude and intense journaling where I lay out all my puddle-soaked laundry, I have been thinking a lot about Dr. Johnson’s quote. What does it mean to treat a happy home as the best ambition? How does that shape how we react to the absurdities and tragedies of the day?
What we measure as success can be so hollow. Success is only found in the happiness we find at home. Even then, I know some people are in spaces they can’t control or don’t feel safe in (mainly children and adolescents; adults have choices), but there is still another definition of home— the home within yourself. The inner fortress you can retreat to. The place where you make your own safety, and where it pays to make your own joy.
What would change for us if we valued a happy home as the “ultimate result” of all our striving?
GABRIELA YARELIZ 