The Best Days

These are the best days, 
These latent spring days, 
These days of timeless sun, 
With no rain, no fog, no wind, 
The abrasive elements asleep, 
The bluest skies, the greenest grass, 
The ripest fruit, the quietest Sundays,  
The traffic dormant, the animals released, 
Pollution reduced and commerce suspended,  
A time of rest, calm, reflection, 
Hidden blessings behind the chaos, 
Quarantines gilded by an apex of peace. 
 
Never have I lived in a home so happy, 
Never have I dreamed life could be so good, 
With a loving wife, a joyful infant, 
A caring mother who made it all work. 
Variables of bliss are working together, 
Drawing from my wounded soul 
What tortured demons possessed it for years, 
Branding me another witness reborn 
To this golden age of global changes. 
 
Out of the ash and into the sky we rise, 
Floating on illusions that stained our hearts 
Black with the doctrines of self, 
Once blind eyes pried open by humility, 
Nature laying claim to the threshold of man. 
Love, the supreme dynamo of life, 
Reigns over this time and place, 
What lost kingdoms yearned for 
They cannot possess, by the justice 
Keeping baser desires in check. 
With Venus in Taurus the Pleiades shine 
Bright like the flowers blooming outside, 
As fertility engages the fear mass produced,  
Coronas of birth spar with others of death, 
Drawing lovers entwined to remember what's best. 

Moral Equations, or Felicific Calculus

I have just stumbled upon Bentham's concept of felicific calculus, a way of calculating the amount of pleasure or pain a specific action will bring, and whether or not it equates to the right moral action.  Bentham was a hedonist, meaning that all actions leading to pleasure should result in the correct moral one.  I am not a hedonist, however if you take into account the calculus of applying whether or not a certain action causes more pain the pleasure it provides, the concept is more valuable.

I've been doing this moral calculus unconsciously for most of my life, most recently when weighing the pros and cons of moving to Thailand with my wife and son.  Last year we made a chart and discussed each way the decision would benefit us or hurt us, with our son being another variable.  We ultimately decided that staying in the U.S.A. would bring us the most pleasure.  The pains of moving to Thailand played a large role in this unconscious calculus we performed.  I think Bentham would have been proud.

Whenever you're uncertain about whether an action will be good or bad for you, it's worth your time to make a chart listing the pros and cons, as I did.  Solving this moral equation could mean the difference between a life of pain and a life of pleasure, both for you and those around you.