Sublime

“Becoming is better than being.”

1. Think about people in your life you view as mentors, or role models, or whom you simply most admire. Which specific qualities of theirs come to mind? 2. Imagine one of your children—or a person to whom you are especially close—describing you to others. What are the qualities you’d hope he or she would cite?

“We do not obtain the most precious gifts by going in search of them but by waiting for them,” Weil wrote. The person who is good at accompaniment is decelerating the pace of social life.

Renowned Yale professor and happiness psychologist Dr. Laurie

Barbara Fredrickson.

The happy person keeps good company and delights in study. Excellence of character, she believes, is “a healthy departure from the relentless pursuit of material goods, wealth, power, and celebrity that characterizes much of our childish culture.”