The End of Happiness

“Do not fear making babies. Even in a dying world there can be happiness.”

“But won’t it be too hard?”

“It was always too hard. What is too hard changes for the generations.”

“But won’t the end be the hardest?”

“The end? Have you then discovered the beginning that you should inquire about the end?”

“Perhaps you're right.”

“He that would know the end would also know the beginning."

"Yes."

"For very long now men have expected the end. But even if it should end, why should it not end happily?”

Overheard at a Bank

"That sure is some life you've had," said the young banker.

"Yes. Yes, it is," the old man said. "I realized in youth that happiness was knowing I could do anything I wanted to do whenever I wanted to do it. They told me that this was not possible. But I found that it was, just that the only limiters of that happiness were other people. They said that money or other circumstances would limit you, but that wasn't true either. It was only people that prevented you and you had to let them."

"I should walk out of this bank today and start traveling. Seeing things."

"Most feel as you do and do nothing. It's as if the life they wish they had is a comfort of sorts--that maybe this life is practice and they'll get a shot at doing it right later on. It helps to believe in heaven."

"I believe in heaven," said the young banker. "If I can just make some more money I will start to live like you have."

The old man was silent.

Then he said, "I think it is good that you believe in heaven. But for me heaven is the opposite of happiness."