The Hermit and the Shepherd

My Irish Nana told me this story when I was young……..



Once there was a man who was considered the wisest and most knowledgeable in his land. He was revered and respected by everyone, and many people sought to be like him, and to attain his position in society.

On day, the man decided that, as he had achieved so much in his life, he needed to go and search for God. In order to do this, he decided to withdraw from society- to become a hermit. He would go and live in the remotest cave he could find, where he would seek to find and understand God. So he left his home, and travelled to the remotest cave in the land.

There he remained for a year. He wrangled with himself- God was nowhere to be seen- he argued and debated with himself, but God was nowhere to be found. He poured every ounce of his energy into searching and seeking to understand and know God, but in vain. Finally, he became angry and frustrated, and in a fit of rage scrawled in large letters on the cave wall:

GOD IS NOWHERE

He stormed out of the cave and walked off into the wilderness- a broken man.

Later that day, a shepherd wandered into the cave, in search of a missing sheep. As he looked around he saw the writing on the wall. Being poor and badly educated, he could only barely read, so he had to trace the letters individually, speaking them out loud as he did so:

“ G-O-D, God……..I-S, is……N-O-W, now…..H-E-R-E, here……God is now here….GOD IS NOW HERE!”

The shepherd was overjoyed- he ran out of the cave shouting “God is now here!” He ran back to his family to tell them the news, and they rejoiced at the news that they would be saved.

There hermit in this story seems to me to represent 21st century western society- rich, gifted, complex, advanced- yet paralysed by the over-expectation that this brings, so that we are often bitter and unfulfilled. Developing societies often retain their simplicity, their innocence and are accepting of what they have.

Therein lies the road to contentment…………….

What is happiness? I prefer to go with Aristotle's definition- that it is the thing one does solely for its own sake. So if you follow Socratic dialectic- someone may wish to have a facelift ;why do they wish this? Because it will make them look younger. Why? Because looking younger will make them feel better about themselves in comparison with their peers. Why? Because feeling better about themselves will make them happy. There is nowhere else to go from here- happiness is the end result, the end of the line, the thing one does solely for its own sake.So why in a world with so much advancement is happiness so elusive? For me the nature of this advancement is the problem- in western society we are richer, older, healthier than ever before. We have access to more money, information, resources and people than even our post-war parents. And all of these things give us choice, too much choice, and too much complexity. We have so much choice that we are prevented from making the simple decisions- is feeling younger in comparison to my peer group really necessary for greater self esteem?

The World Values Organisation recently conducted an extensive survey on which countries in the world were the happiest- and how what constitutes happiness changes from country to country.What's the happiest country in the world? NIGERIA. Nigeria has the highest % of its population declaring themselves happy. Now Nigeria is an extremely violent country (Lagos is one of the murder capitals of the world) and poverty affects large swathes of the population, yet they are the happiest people on earth. And they're not alone- 3rd world countries are generally happier than developed countries, in this and other studies (the USA comes 16th, the UK 24th)Throughout this study the recurring theme is that the choice and complexity of 'developed' society does not lead to happiness.
As a postscript to my example of cosmetic surgery above, The Washington Post reports that women who can afford the luxury of breast implants are more than three times as likely to commit suicide. Ceci Connolly writes in The Washington Post that studies in Finland, Sweden and the U.S. all show the same reaction. This isn't true with women who’ve had mastectomies, only with those who enlarge their breasts for cosmetic reasons.
Being able to spend money this way is an incredible luxury, so why does it leave women so depressed? Researchers think that women who want this kind of procedure think it will solve their psychological and dating problems—and then find out it doesn't.
So with greater choice comes greater expectation, and bitterness when this is not fulfilled.
On of the worrying things from the World Values Survey is that old people are happier than young people, even though BOTH groups think that young people are the happiest.
Scientists say that older people forget how happy (or unhappy) they were when they were young, while young people simply assume that they won't be very happy when they're old.
Kids becoming teenagers these days in western society are faced with so many expectations- material, emotional, sexual- combined with ‘choice’ and the apparent attainability of fame and riches without application, that its not surprising they are trepidous about the future. Albert Camus once wrote ‘modern man will be remembered for fornicating and reading the papers’, and that was 50 years before reality TV!

But why do some third world countries appear happier despite being in great need? Enter the Hermit and the Shepherd………….