The Psychology (and Theology) of the Good Life

Ever wonder about the things that rise unbidden from your memory? 

Today at breakfast I was humming "When the Roll Is Called Up Yonder."  I haven't thought of that hymn for decades, but it was the closing hymn at a funeral service I led yesterday. And somehow it became the soundtrack for my oatmeal and smoothie this morning.

I remember liking it as a kid.  In part because the tune has some life to it, and you can be so dramatic with an elongated "ro-o-o-o-ll" and "yo-o-o-o-o-nder" in the last line of each verse and all the way through the refrain.  In part, too, because I really found something comforting in the promise of being part of a company of happily saved souls.  And I think it really was the promise of being part of "that company" more than of escaping hell, that attracted me.  Overall I was probably more lonely than convicted, even though at the time I would have told you the opposite.

And then there's the other thing I found myself mulling over from yesterday -- an interview on CBC's The Current with Laurie Santos, an evolutionary psychology professor who teaches a wildly -- even insanely, popular course called "Psychology and the Good Life" in which she distils current evolutionary and psychological research about human life and happiness, into practical daily disciplines, understandings and practices that students can learn and commit to, to live good lives.  When pressed, Laurie says it comes down to developing three things in your life: time for yourself so you can know your own true needs rather than just what our culture tells you to want; daily practices of mindfulness and gratitude; and a commitment to being nice to, and doing good things for others with whatever resources and assets you have.

The course is so life-changing that thousands enrol in person and on-line, students send materials back to their younger siblings still at home and to their parents, and people from around the world find ways to access it.  

I was excited just hearing the interview about it while I drove to the church to prepare for the funeral I was leading.  And where we would sing "When the Roll Is Called Up Yonder."

I wonder how these two things connect in me.

Maybe for me it really is less about making it into "that happy company" on the other side of the distant shore, and more about being part of that company here and now.


p.s. You can find the interview with Laurie Santos at http://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/the-current-for-february-20-2018-1.4542333/the-secret-to-happiness-ask-this-yale-professor-and-the-1-200-students-taking-her-class-1.4542341

And you can hear a youtube version of "When the Roll" with lyrics, at  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDWZbDALuI8.