KEY QUOTES & BIG IDEAS
Matt Lee on what is flourishing:
“So flourishing we understand as complete wellbeing. And it's not just about the wellbeing of an individual, who might not be contributing to the greater good. It's not just happiness or positive affect or feeling good. It's about how individuals and their communities are mutually enriching each other.”
Matt Lee on the value of studying flourishing:
“We've got a larger narrative that helps us make sense of our suffering so we can feel a sense of joy even if we or our loved ones are suffering. I think what flourishing offers us is a way to think about happiness and wellbeing and joy and health and related topics as a holistic kind of integration of all of these things.”
Matt Lee on connection during crisis:
“What people find sometimes is that the depth of relationship in the midst of suffering that is so deep, and it's almost, one author calls it a "paradise of unbroken solidarities", and the natural disaster washes away the social disaster of everyday life. And loneliness has gone, lack of meaning, lack of purpose is gone. And sometimes you find that people, they're a little bit sad when the lights come back on. I don't want to go back to the mundane, disconnected life. And so nobody's advocating for promoting suffering or causing these things to happen. But it does suggest something about the way we've organized our interactions that we've got such epidemic levels of loneliness and depression and anxiety, and that when the switch is flipped, and you see what happens when people have to work together and they do that they find that they're released from that prison.”
Byron Johnson on the need for more social study of faith:
“There's a lot of evidence that shows just being a regular attender is good for you, good for you physically helps you to live longer. And so there are these utilitarian ways in which you could look at, Okay, so if I wanna live longer, I should actually be a regular attender at worship services. That's actually pretty accurate. And so I think there are these benefits that people really don't know about that are byproducts of faith….I think that the academy is overrepresented by people of little faith or no faith, candidly. And so some of this is a direct result of that. I think there is a lack of understanding. And so what people don't have knowledge of, they just don't understand. And so that's why when people like us publish some of these papers, it's like, what? The findings are that clear? It's just shocking to them because they don't really understand how that works.”
Matt Lee on flourishing in education:
"We know from Gallup data that students become less engaged over time, the highest levels of engagement are in elementary school when they're playing together, when they're using creative arts, you learn the alphabet by using finger paints or something. And then we move the arts out of the core classes and it becomes more competitive and more individualistic. So we lose engagement over time so that by the time you're in high school, only four out of 10 students are engaged. And by the time you become a teacher, only three out of 10 teachers are engaged. So there's something about the culture that we're creating as we move students away from the warm, friendly, playful, enjoyable, deeply connected kindergarten experience and into the solitary individualistic competitive experience."
Byron Johnson on importance of studying hope:
"We live in a world where over the last 15 years there's been a dramatic rise in unhappiness, and it's kind of frightening actually. And so if you can say there's a rise in despair and it's happening around the world, what's the opposite of despair? And I would argue hope is the opposite of despair. So why is it that so many people are hopeless in the world? What might we find that distinguishes people who have hope versus people that have despair? And if we can unravel that, what might we be able to provide to the world, no matter where you live?... Wouldn't it be great to know, look, if this is where you are, if you took this scale and look where you are, you're at the bottom end of this despair measure and nothing good comes from that, how do we move you six places to the right of despair toward hope? And what if we could develop apps that could be used around the world that would interact with people and help them make right steps that would prevent suicides or suicidal ideation, that would prevent overdoses, et cetera. If we could do this, what a great gift to the world. And I know that sounds grandiose, but the whole project is really."
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GO DEEPER:
Read: The Global Flourishing Study (Harvard)
Read: “Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community” by Robert Putnam
Watch: The Global Flourishing Study Launch (Youtube)
Watch: Flourishing and the Global Flourishing Study presentation by Tyler J. VanderWeele (Youtube)