Want a happier life in the new year? Then seek truth, goodness, beauty
In the new year, we should seek truth, pursue goodness, and surround ourselves with beauty. Truth, beauty, and goodness are tightly linked. To live well and have a happy new year, we should resolve to ask ourselves three questions. Is it true? Is it good? And is it beautiful?
New year’s wishes and resolutions are often less enlightened. That’s because we are often confused about happiness. Perhaps we think that happiness is something that happens to us — like winning the lottery. Or we confuse power and influence with happiness.
But happiness has little to do with external goods. It is not an object. Nor is it given to us by someone else. Happiness is a byproduct of the daily struggle to live well.
Ancient wisdom teaches that fame and fortune are fleeting. The same is true of health, and even life itself. The external goods we desire are beyond our control. Businesses go bankrupt. Diseases, storms, and accidents afflict us. Social life involves conflicts and disputes. And politics is chaotic and often ugly.
Some external goods are necessary. Some money is nice. It’s better to live in a safe neighborhood than in a war zone. But the key to happiness is not wealth or a mansion behind a guarded gate. It is also useful to have a good reputation. But fame is less important than most gloryseekers think. A healthy body is important. But physical health is less valuable than health of the soul.
Truth, goodness, and beauty are more substantial and enduring than fame and fortune. True statements are not subject to the opinions of the masses. Logic, mathematics, and science remain stable, while the opinions of the world swirl about. And despite propaganda and fake news, the truth is there, waiting to be known.
The same kind of stability is found in a good person. Liars and cheats are unpredictable. Braggarts and loud mouths rage and fume. And crooks have crooked souls. But good people are trustworthy and reliable. Their integrity makes them steady and resolute.
A good soul is also beautiful. Beauty is harmony and proportion. In music, beauty is heard in the balance of a chord and the pattern of rhythm. A good life is marked by this kind of patterned concord.
The Confucian tradition explained harmony and goodness through an analogy with music — and with cooking. A delicious meal involves the right balance of spicy and sweet, flavors and textures. So too with music, and with life. The parts of life must be measured and coordinated with wisdom and restraint. When life gives you lemons, you should make lemonade. And when things fall out of rhythm, you need to get back on the beat.
Some traditions suggest that the transcendent goods of truth, goodness, and beauty put us in touch with the divine. Plato said virtuous human beings became godlike. He imagined the gods as true, good, and beautiful. The essence of the divine is a kind of eternal stability and glowing beauty. To live well, we should imitate that ideal of perfection.
Of course, perfection is not available for mere mortals. Happiness is not always easy to obtain. We are fallible beings in a broken world. Human life is an ongoing process of overcoming challenges. Great art comes from struggle. The same is true of scientific achievement and business success.
Understanding the value of struggle can provide us with inspiration and hope. This world contains much that is ugly, dishonest, and evil. The wickedness of the world can make us resentful. It can lead to despair. It can even seduce us into giving up on the task of living well.
In a corrupt world, it is easy to become corrupt and complicit. It is more difficult to struggle on, and to remain steadfast against the seductions of the world. The gods do not struggle to be good, beautiful, or true. But human beings must work at it. The struggle to live well is essential to happiness. That’s why as the new year dawns, we make resolutions. For a happy new year, we should renew our commitment to being better, more truthful, and to living a more beautiful life.
Andrew Fiala is a professor of philosophy and director of The Ethics Center at Fresno State.
KYIV, UKRAINE>> Ukraine’s two largest cities came under attack early Tuesday from Russian missiles that killed five people and injured as many as 130, officials said, as the war approached its two-year mark and the Kremlin stepped up its winter bombardment of urban areas.
Air defenses shot down all 10 of the Russian Kinzhal missiles, which can fly at 10 times the speed of sound, out of about 100 of various types that were launched, claimed Gen. Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Ukraine’s commander-in-chief.
But other missiles got through in Kyiv and in Kharkiv, the provincial capital of the northeastern region.
In Kyiv and its surrounding region, four people were killed and about 70 were wounded, while in the Kharkiv region, one person was killed and about 60 were hurt, the Interior Ministry said.
The KH-47M2 Kinzhal is an air-launched ballistic missile that is rarely used by Russian forces due to its cost and limited stocks.
The barrage fired Tuesday was the highest number used in one attack since the start of the war, Ukraine air force spokesperson Yurii Ihnat said.
The latest round of attacks by Russia began Friday with its largest single assault on Ukraine of the war, as fighting along the 620-mile front line has subsided into grinding attrition amid winter. At least 41 civilians were killed since the weekend.
At a nine-story Kyiv apartment building where two people were killed, 48-year-old Inna Luhina was getting ready for work when a blast shattered her windows and she and other family members, including her 80-year-old mother, were struck by flying glass.
More than 100 survivors gathered at a school set up as a temporary shelter.
Iryna Dzyhil, a 55-yearold resident of the same building, said the explosion threw her and her husband from their chairs, and a subsequent fire trapped them on the top floor until emergency crews rescued them via the roof.
“They say they’re hitting military targets, but they’re hitting people, killing our children and our loved ones,” Dzyhil said of the Russians.
Russia fired almost 100 week, claiming that the insurer failed to provide compensation commensurate with their destroyed home’s value that would allow them to purchase a replacement dwelling.
As part of the policy contract, “State Farm agreed to repair, rebuild, and replace damaged property with materials of like kind and quality,” the complaint said.
Last March, the family “notified State Farm of their intent to purchase a home already under construction in lieu of rebuilding their home on the original loss site.
Plaintiffs advised State Farm that the home under construction being purchased was of similar size and quality, and that the builder would be providing details on costs attributable to ordinance and law coverage.”
The insurer has allegedly offered reimbursement missiles of various types in the attacks, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on X, formerly Twitter.
He claimed at least 70 were shot down, almost all of them in the Kyiv area, noting that Western-supplied air defense systems such as Patriots and NASAMS had saved hundreds of lives.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said it had launched missile and drone strikes on military industrial facilities in and around Kyiv. Depots storing missiles and munitions supplied by the West also were targeted, it said.
“The goal of the strike has been achieved, all the targets have been hit,” it said without elaborating.
It was not possible to independently verify either side’s claims.
In his nightly address, Zelenskyy said that since Dec. 29, Russia has used almost 300 missiles and more than 200 Shahed drones against Ukraine.
The attacks created a desolate morning scene in Kyiv, with most cafes and restaurants remaining closed.
Many people opted to stay indoors or seek refuge in shelters as powerful blasts shook the city from early morning.
Air raid sirens blared for nearly four hours, and the city’s subway stations — which serve as shelters — were crowded.
After the air force issued warnings about incoming missiles, people wearing pajamas underneath their coats took sleeping bags, mats and their pets to subway stations while loud explosions echoed above.
At one of the central stations, called Golden Gates, hundreds of people filled the spacious underground areas while trains continued to run.
“Perhaps today was the most frightening because there were so many explosions,” said resident Myroslava Shcherba.
On Saturday, shelling of the Russian border city of Belgorod killed more than two dozen people. Russia blamed Ukraine for the attack and has struck back repeatedly since then.
The Belgorod attack was one of the deadliest on Russian soil since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine started more than 22 months ago. Russian officials said the death toll reached 26, including five children, after a new salvo of rockets Tuesday.
Air defense systems near Belgorod shot down four missiles fired Tuesday by a Ukrainian Vilkha multiple rocket launcher, the Russian Defense Ministry said.
Over the previous 24 hours, Ukraine has carried out at least 50 attacks, including shelling and explosives from drones, regional Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said. One person was killed and 11 others were injured by the shelling, he said.
Repeated attacks on Belgorod also prompted city authorities to temporarily shut some of its cinemas and malls.
Announcing the closures on Telergam, Mayor Valentin Demidov said that “everyone should stay home as much as possible” in light of the attacks.
Shortly after Demidov’s announcement, Russian media reported loud explosions heard in Belgorod yet again.
Gladkov and Russia’s Defense Ministry said nine missiles launched by Ukraine were shot down over the region. No casualties were reported.
Cities in western Russia have regularly come under drone attacks since May, although Ukrainian officials never acknowledge responsibility for strikes on Russian territory or the annexed Crimean Peninsula.
“They want to intimidate us and create uncertainty within our country. We will intensify strikes. Not a single crime against our civilian population will go unpunished,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday, describing the barrage of Belgorod as a “terrorist act.”
He accused Western nations of using Ukraine to try to “put Russia in its place.” While vowing retribution, he insisted Moscow would only target military infrastructure in Ukraine, but officials in Kyiv report civilian casualties from daily attacks on apartment buildings, shopping centers and residential areas.
In other developments, Russia’s Defense Ministry said one of its warplanes accidentally released munitions over the southwestern Russian village of Petropavlovka in the Voronezh region Tuesday, damaging six houses but causing no injuries.
It said an investigation will determine the cause of the accident but didn’t say what type of weapon the warplane dropped.
In April, munitions accidentally released by a Russian warplane caused a powerful blast in Belgorod, damaging several cars and slightly injuring two people.
A burned out car photographed in June appears to be a monument of the fire damage left behind in Superior. that is hundreds 28 in Boulder County District of thousands dollars less Court; and Scott Eshelman than the contract price of and Holly Tarabori-eshelman the replacement home. v. Farmers
“The filing of a lawsuit Insurance Exchange does not substantiate and True North Restoration the allegations within the LLC, case number complaint,” a State Farm 2023CV31128 filed Dec. spokesperson told Bizwest 28 in Boulder County District in an email. “We’ve Court. recently learned of the filing. So, it’s premature to comment at this time.
The court cases are
Christopher Pritchard and Regina Pritchard v.
State Farm Fire and Casualty Co., case number
2023CV31132 filed Dec.
This article was first published by Bizwest, an independent news organization, and is published under a license agreement. © 2024 Bizwest Media LLC.