World Ark Magazine - November/December 2007 - (Page 14)

A PATH OF DISCOVERY Many of today’s books on happiness are fi lled with advice that anyone would do well to follow: simplify your life, count your blessings, take care of your body, express gratitude, don’t forget to reflect on your feelings, fi nd meaningful work and cultivate relationships. But one question that is missing is: Can happiness be successfully pursued in a self-interested fashion? The Chinese Taoist philosopher Chuang-tse did not think so. He described happiness as “the absence of the striving for happiness.” And John Stuart Mill observed: “Those only are happy who have their minds fi xed on some object other than their own happiness; on the happiness of others, on the improvement of mankind, even on some art or pursuit, followed not as a means, but as itself an ideal end. Aiming thus at something else, they find happiness by the way.” Consider Michael Lerner’s story. One day in 1972, Lerner, a 28-year-old Ph.D in political science, met a little girl in a school in Berkeley, Calif. Lerner, who had also studied child psychology, was told that the girl had been diagnosed as mentally retarded, but after a psychotherapist took the girl off gluten and dairy products her behavior improved dramatically. “It turned out she was not retarded,” Lerner said. She only had a learning disability. Lerner is a soft-spoken man with a calm but vivid presence. “This was a profound turning point in my life,” he recalled. “In all my years of studying child development, no one had ever suggested that nutrition played a role in consciousness.” At the time Lerner was on sabbatical from Yale University, where he was one of two candidates being considered for a tenured position. He was expected to return to Yale to teach. But he was so taken by this little girl that he decided to remain in California and start a school to explore the role of nutrition in learning behavior disorders. “Having a shot at tenure at Yale is a big deal,” he recalled. “The idea of leaving Yale to start an experimental school for delinquent kids was, from my parents’ point of view, professional suicide.” But the experience set Lerner on a path of discovery that he couldn’t have imagined. Over the past 35 years, he has collaborated in building Commonweal, a health and environmental research institute, the Commonweal Cancer Help Program, a nationally recognized support program, and the Collaborative on Health and the Environment, an international partnership of scientists, clinicians, patient advocates and others, which focuses on understanding the impact of the environment on health. Lerner’s journey has not been without struggles and doubts, but it has enriched his life. “There is this enormous, coherent, indefinable mystery in the world that we can all connect to and all participate in, if we so choose,” he explained. “As T.S. www.heifer.org 14 November/December 2007 | WORLD ARK http://www.heifer.org

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of World Ark Magazine - November/December 2007

World Ark - November/December 2007 Contents Letters For the Record The Good Life Asked & Answered Pursuing Happiness (PRODUCT) RED: Consumer Power Fights AIDS in Africa Rwanda Reconciles End Hunger Now Protecting the Poor from Climate Change Mixed Media Heifer Bulletin Heifer Spirit Heifer Calendar Reflection

World Ark Magazine - November/December 2007

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