The Wisdom of Helen Keller

Helen Keller famously wrote, "True happiness . . . is not attained through self-gratification, but through fidelity to a worthy purpose." I often apply this formula to my daily life, according to circumstances: "True happiness . . . is not attained through playing another round of Red Dead Redemption but through fidelity to another load of whites."

I've never read her autobiography, but every quote that I've read is full of that clear-sighted wisdom that sounds obvious when you're young but whose depth and meaning become clearer with every year that you age.

On religion: "It is wonderful how much time good people spend fighting the devil. If they would only expend the same amount of energy loving their fellow men, the devil would die in his own tracks of ennui."

On loss: "What we have once enjoyed, we can never lose. All that we love deeply becomes part of us."

On work: "I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble." 

And with that, back to laundry.