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Worry, fear are luxuries of safety |
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Written by Knight Ridder
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Wednesday, 12 April 2006 |
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Just 10 days after the Titanic struck an iceberg on April 14, 1912, an account appeared in a French newspaper.
There were no young lovers in it, no priceless diamond necklace, no Hollywood melodrama. Yet for sheer cinematic detail, it puts James Cameron to shame:
"The survivors of that disastrous shipwreck have terrifying memories of it: the wall of ice as seen through the porthole; the moment of hesitation and hope; ...the bitter cold, the despair, and at last the rescue."
All of which inspired the writer to meditate about . . . happiness.
The Titanic disaster, he said, is appalling to us — the people who didn’t die on the Titanic.
Worry and fear, in other words, are the luxuries of the safe. They have nothing to do with an actual emergency — so you might as well purge them from your life.
This striking newspaper column, like several thousand that appeared in La Depeche de Rouen between 1906 and 1928, was written by the greatest self-help writer you’ve never heard of: Alain.
You won’t find him on the Barnes & Noble shelves, next to Dr. Phil and Wayne W. Dyer. In fact, you probably won’t find him at all.
"Alain on Happiness: A Great French Philosopher’s Guide to a More Joyful Life" was last in print in the United States in 1989 (from Northwestern University Press) and is probably procurable — if at all — only on the Web.
Alain’s newspaper column was about happiness. And Alain, born Emile Chartier (1868-1951), approached the subject with a wit and common sense that none of today’s bestselling "inspirational" writers could approach on their best payday.
The theme of this April 24, 1912, Titanic column was one that Alain often returned to: how the fearful melodramas we concoct in our heads not only poison our happiness but may bear little relation to reality. Consider the million what-if scenarios we obsess over every day.
One thing about Alain: He would never have gotten onto "Oprah." | Only registered users can write comments.
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|  | "Humankind cannot gain anything without first giving something in return. To obtain, something of equal value must be lost. That is Alchemy's first law of Equivalent Exchange. In those days, we really believed that to be the world's one, and only truth." | |
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