I remember finding Clapton at the animal shelter near the San Antonio zoo. He was pacing around his small area, it looked like he had a lot of energy. I was looking for a dog who would be, in part, a running buddy. I took a couple dogs out for a walk that first day, but out of all of them Clapton struck me as “the one”.
I came back the following two days and took different dogs for a walk, each time also taking Clapton. At one point there were children playing in one of the dog play areas, and I decided to see how he’d do around them. They wanted to play with him and he was interested in playing with them, it seemed like he liked kids well enough, although he was generally indifferent about people.
This article in the Atlantic struck a chord with me. It’s about how, in life, searching for meaning can leave people more satisfied than searching for happiness.
As [Viktor Frankl] saw in the [concentration] camps, those who found meaning even in the most horrendous circumstances were far more resilient to suffering than those who did not. “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing”.
Meaning, more than happiness, is long-term. The article describes our modern meaning for happiness as a satisfaction of needs and wants. When those needs and wants cease to be satisfied, that happiness turns out to have only been temporary. Meaning in life, the article describes, requires considering more than just the needs and wants of the moment.