In this wish-list John Keats, English poet and nuannaarpoq award winner No. 3 (according to this website), covers quite a few building blocks of happiness. Noteworthy is his mention of ‘health’ early on, given that it was illness that cut short his fully-grasped-and-enjoyed young life.
I also liked his inclusion of a few numbskulls to argue with.
Source: John Keats, Selected Letters, ed. Robert Gittings (Oxford World Classics, 2002/2009), p. 195
Photo credit: Rob Mulally at unsplash.com
‘O there is nothing like fine weather, and health, and Books, and a fine country, and a contented Mind, and Diligent-habit of reading and thinking, and an amulet against the ennui – and, please heaven, a little claret-wine cool out of a cellar a mile deep – with a few or a good many ratafia cakes – a rocky basin to bathe in, a strawberry bed to say your prayers to Flora in, a pad nag to go you ten miles or so; two or three sensible people to chat with; two or three spiteful folkes to spar with; to or three odd fishes to laugh at and two or three numskuls to argue with – instead of using dumb bells on a rainy day.’
(1 May 1819)
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