Interview Essay - Murray Meisels
Murray Meisels was born on April 19, 1924, in Brooklyn, New York. He grew up in New York City and came to California in 1941 to attend college at USC. After graduating from USC, he attended the University of Oregon Dental School and the University of Buffalo Dental School. Murray served in the military during WWII and the Korean War. In 1948, he married Francis and they made their home in Buffalo, New York. They raised two children, and Murray owned a dental practice for over 40 years. While raising a family and practicing dentistry, he completed a Masters degree and taught at the University of Buffalo Dental School. In 1991 Murray retired from private practice, but continued teaching part time at the dental school. During this time he and his wife spent winters in California. In 1996 they decided to make California their permanent home, and are very happy living here. They are proud parents and grandparents. Murray is very active and enjoys the Emeritus program, exercising regularly, stamp collecting, golf and craft works. He creates beautiful ceramic, glass and sculptured pieces.
The key elements in Murray's definition of happiness are peace, quiet, a lack of arguing, good health, and security. His definition of happiness has changed through the years, and he finds himself content with allowing people and situations to be the way they are. He is happier when he doesn't let things bother him. He has learned over time not to worry and aggravate himself unnecessarily. Selfish and opinionated people used to bother him terribly and he felt the need to respond, argue, or simply avoid them. But now he can handle these types of situations without feeling stressed.
Having too many requests at h...
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...w and you'll see the results in your life."
He feels that this advice is consistent with his philosophy on life. "I try to be fair and honest with everyone, sometimes to a fault. I like people to be honest and fair with me. I have always loved and done right by my family. I worked hard to do the best job that I could and I didn't take advantage of anyone in my practice."
I truly enjoyed my time spent with Murray. Both he and his wife Francis graciously welcomed us into their home, and made us feel like familiar friends. It was wonderful to hear him share stories from his life and I thank him for his openness and honesty. His insights about the trials and tribulations of life were applicable to a person of any age. Many times over the last few weeks, I have found myself thinking about something that he said. Murray is truly full of life and has a lot of spirit!
Before we look into specifics, we’ll examine the history and development of “happiness” as a philosophy. Of course, the emotion of happiness has always existed, but it began to be seriously contemplated around 2,500 years ago by philosophers like Confucius, Buddha, Socrates and Aristotle. Shortly after Buddha taught his followers his Noble Eight Fold Path (which we will talk about later), Aristotle was teaching that happiness is “dependent on the individual” (Aristotle).
In “Paradise Glossed, ” from Stumbling on Happiness, Daniel Gilbert, professor of psychology at Harvard, discusses how happiness is not simply quantified or measured, but rather, results from how people interpret the numerous events that make up their lives. His main claim is that each event could be seen from a myriad of different angles, and thus could end in varying degrees of happiness for each person. Gilbert also explains how people often lean more toward the optimistic side of things: upon experiencing an event, people tend to find the positives in the situation. Gilbert’s argument is reasonable, clear, and is backed by evidence. But in spite of this, he fails to clearly define happiness, and his logic is somewhat flawed. He seems to
Labor unions have a long and colorful history in the United States. A union is an organized group of workers who work together and use their strength to have a voice in the workplace. As a union, workers are able to have an impact on benefits, hours, safety and many other work-related issues. Many Americans involved in unions have an understanding of the process and what exactly it does, although those who are not, have some idea but not a complete understanding. The unionization of Registered Nurses has been an ongoing debate for years. In the United States many nurses, doctors and hospitals have unionized. As with all other labor issues, there are pros and cons to this issue. In the following, the positives and negatives of being a part of a union will be addressed as it pertains to Nurses.
From the beginning of time, humans have always endeavored to be happy. During this time, thousands of different people have given their interpretation of the term happiness. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the simplified definition of happiness is feeling pleasure or joy because of a certain situation. In Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, Controller, Mustapha Mond, conceals the truth in order to keep everyone happy. He gives people drugs and brainwashes them into believing that life is good. Satisfying. When John the Savage is introduced to the World State, he questions all things pertaining to “civilization.” The civilized people are willing to do everything in their power to hide from the truth. Throughout the story of Brave New World, every character craves happiness in some way, shape, or form; similarly, our society today concentrates and will
Lowell Dean Rogne was born in the year 1949, just less than twenty years before he got drafted into the Vietnam War in 1969. He lived in Linn Grove, Iowa, a little farming town, which is located about 35 miles south of MIlford, settled almost exactly halfway between Storm Lake, Iowa, and Spencer, Iowa. He lived with his family on a farm. He had three brothers, one older and two younger. His older brother was drafted into the war like he was, but his younger brothers were young enough to not be drafted. He had a mother and a father as well, and he worked on the family farm with them and his brothers. He also had a second job as a heavy construction worker and helped build a few of the buildings that are still up today in Spencer, like the Spencer YMCA and the Catholic Church. Lowell received a full education, meaning we went to school for all twelve years (grades k-12), although he never attended college. While in school he met his wife Debra. They were high school sweethearts and to this day they are still married and going on forty-five years this coming October. He never got much...
The definition of happiness has long been disputed. According to Aristotle, happiness is the highest good and the ultimate end goal—for it is self-reliant. This idea contradicted other common beliefs and philosophical theories. Aristotle opens his work by describing the various theories, neutrally examines each idea, and discloses how he thinks the theory is wrong and why his idea of happiness is more accurate.
The basis of today’s opposition’s argument is that unions have outgrown their usefulness and can be harmful to American businesses and the economy as a whole. The opposition’s argument has some merit and supporting evidence albeit with personal and political bias.
In today’s world of employment, one can choose to work in a unionized or a non unionized workplace; both situations have positive and negative attributes. In a unionized situation, members experience benefits such as union representation, and aversions such as layoffs and strikes. In a non-union situation, workers experience benefits such as better treatment by management, and aversions such as decreased benefits and overall decreased wages. Although over the last few decades union membership and growth have decreased, organized labor is becoming popular.
The definition of happiness is first finding the common definition, which is a perfect common good (Penguin Classics, 1998). Happiness is the main goal in life and if achieved lives will be complete and be lacking in nothing, obtaining it would be absolute perfection (Shields, 2007).
According to the Ayn Rand Lexicon, happiness is defined as a state of being, not a feeling that comes and goes, that is lived morally and based on your values. They claim that a person should not sacrifice their own happiness for someone else ever because it is a disrespectful rejection of morality. In addition, the definition states that happiness should not be based on unreasonable, sudden changes and that a person should not live a life of deception because it will bring about difficulties. If a person follows this lifestyle they can achieve an enjoyable and successful life of happiness.
Happiness is a term that typically has different definitions. Some define happiness, as the things one possess; others may define it as doing a good deed and the feeling one has after doing a good deed. Merriam-Webster defines happiness as, “a state of well-being and contentment” . Even Aristotle acknowledges that everyone disagrees on the definition of happiness because we all have a different thought-process and prior knowledge. Even though there are many definitions to happiness, both Aristotle and John Stuart Mill take a similar approach when attempting to define happiness in their books. Aristotle and Mill discuss their theories of happiness and pleasure, and their views of virtue in ethics and its relation to happiness. Aristotle and Mill may have been writing at different times, and did not necessarily have the same beliefs, but both philosophers took a similar position when defining happiness.
In a CNN study by Chuck Hadad he states “That bullying is pervasive even though the schools have anti-bullying programs from kindergarten through 12th grade, assemblies throughout the year, and a peer-to-peer program where older students talk to younger students about the dangers of bullying” (Hadad). Robert Faris, a sociologist found that bullies and victims are generally the same person. Whe...
Kværner, K. J., O. G. Aasland, and G. S. Botten. "Female Medial Leadership: Cross Sectional
While Coleridge describes the process of creating Romantic poetry and encourages poets to use the combination of nature and imagination in this process, Keats is more focused on reality and is well aware of the limitations of the Grecian urn. With the poets’ admiration of nature present in both poems …… to be completed.
Every person has been happy at some point in their life. In “Is Our Definition of Happiness Changing? ” we are able to reflect on our past lives through rather than many years before. The basic definition of happiness isn’t changing, but our own personal happiness is (Von Baldegg, Price-Waldman, Korhonen). In “An Equation That Predicts Happiness,” happiness is something you can easily reach if managed correctly. Happiness is about managing expectations with what really happens. Watch one’s expectations in order to balance how you feel about a situation. It is said “lower your expectations” but it isn’t about lowering them. You can still remain realistic and you can still keep a humble view of happiness in your own life