Happiness and Dandelions

Today I was browsing the stacks at Swem, looking through the philosophy section for books related to my research, and as I turned around to leave, this book caught my eye. It's called "The Conquest of Happiness", and it's by one of my favorite philosophers: Bertrand Russell. I couldn't resist picking it up and reading the first paragraph:

This book is not addressed to the learned, or to those who regard a practical problem merely as something to be talked about. No profound philosophy or deep erudition will be found in the following pages. I have aimed only at putting together some remarks which are inspired by what I hope is common sense. All that I claim for the recipes offered to the reader is that they are such as are confirmed by my own experience and observation, and that they have increased my own happiness whenever I have acted in accordance with them. On this ground I venture to hope that some among those multitudes of men and women who suffer unhappiness without enjoying it, may find their situation diagnosed and a method, of escape suggested. It is in the belief that many people who are unhappy could become happy by well-directed effort that I have written this book.

Then, as I flipped through the rest of the book, it fell open to this page, where some previous library patron had decided to preserve two little flowers. Now, this book was published in 1930, and it felt like it had been decades since someone had taken it off the shelf, so God only knows how long those flowers have been in there. But seeing them did make me smile.

So I left them there, closed the book, and put it back on the shelf for someone else to find in another 50 years.