Pretty sure the people I see sleeping in doorways on my way to work would be hard pressed to agree with you.

I concur.
Nice chestnuts.

Not close to the truth. Like alot of postings on this site filled with idealistic ideas, but not based on fact. Maybe in your world that may be true, but not in the the world l live in and see on a daily basis.

I think it is essentially true to say happiness is available irrespective of material circumstances, but I think the path to it is so well hidden as to be virtually inaccessible to all but the most determined and lucky.

I'm sorry, but I disagree with you. The way society is tipped so that there are some people living in cardboard boxes, there are kids living away from their parents behind bars because their parents made the dastardly mistake of wanting a better life for them so crossed to the US, people being killed because of who they love, and women who are victimized in so many ways I don't think it's true.

I recognize those - Chinese Chestnuts ..likely unpollinated nuts, though. My place came with a massive tree of ‘them.’ If I can beat the squirrels & deer, I’ll find a few decent nuts inside. But this is a bumper year, and after ‘Florence’ blew ¼ of them off, I harvested 40 pounds of solid nuts! ‘Broke my fast’ yesterday morning with them, may do the same today. ...not likely a response you’d have expected, but the sight of that prickly husk wound me up

a bit, huh?

actually, not everyone can be happy, even with hard work. some people are mentally ill and cannot conceive of happiness. some people are actively being tortured, sometimes to death; happiness would be an inappropriate reaction to that. and happiness is different from person to person, so it is difficult to agree with an assertion that everyone can attain it when not everyone can even define it.

g

Thanks for the thoughts... I'll check them out with my therapist!