Eudaimonia – Say, What?
Why is it that some words seem to crop up over and over, so worn out from overuse that I sometimes wish they would disappear from the English language? Other words, perfectly marvelous, amazing words, are so seldom used that when I chance to run across them, I do a mental double-take, mystified and intrigued.
Such a word is the tongue-twister eudaimonia that catches my eye, embedded in an article in my newspaper’s Life and Times section. Curiosity drives me and as I turn from the paper to my reliable Concise Oxford Dictionary, I am completely surprised by what I find. Eudaimonia (or eudaemonia) is, simply put, another word for happiness. Now that’s odd. I was expecting it to be some complicated medical term or a name for the seventh moon of a little-known planet. Its strange spelling suggests its ancient origins, but obviously it is a viable part of our English language, though perhaps in more erudite circles than mine. Even my computer’s spell checker doesn’t recognize it, underlining it with red ink, chiding me as if to say: What are you thinking?
I launch my favorite search engine, clicking links as I read, copy and paste, and this word’s complexity unfolds like the honey-infused layers of a piece of baklava. Delicious phrases evoke a dizzying array of images… phrases such as human flourishing (Wikipedia) or a sense of fulfillment that arises from achieving one’s full potential as a human being (Free Medical Dictionary). I particularly relish a contented state of being happy, healthy and prosperous (definitions.net). I find there is even an entire ethical approach, eudemonism, described as identifying or choosing actions that will lead to happiness.
I wonder, why would such a complex, intricate word appear so rarely in everyday use? Its synonym happiness appears plain and tasteless, a saltine-cracker-type of word when compared with the delectable eudaimonia that describes a flowing sense of something joyous, a welling inside of fulfillment and contentment. This word drips with a nourishing nectar, exuding a fragrance that beckons me to reach for it, to taste it, to take it into myself to assuage a hunger and experience all that life spreads before me.
I must give credit to Aristotle, who identified eudaimonia as the highest human good (Britanica.com), a goal for ethical behavior. As I look beyond Greek philosophy, I open my Bible to see if this particular root word can be found. Although happy or happiness crop up a few times in my concordance, those words aren’t rooted in eudaimonia. I don’t find the depth that I’m looking for. I decide that the closest thing might be Paul’s blessing to the Ephesians in which he urges his readers to grow in the power of our inner selves, to try to grasp the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s life1a. Extravagant dimensions… now that sure sounds like eudaimonia to me. Biblical scholars may cringe at this interpretation, but I imagine Paul digging deeply to somehow convey the richness of a life lived in God’s fullness and to capture the inner flourishing that is possible as God provides a life that is immeasurably more than we can ask or conceive 1b. When I think about God, I can’t imagine anything less than eudaimonia as one of God’s hopes for us. Wouldn’t God want us to have a good attendant spirit? (Merriam-Webster) The idea of flourishing as a human being becomes inseparable from our inner compulsion to somehow meld our spirits with God’s, to link our own happiness to what God wants for us as well to grow towards being fully human and fully divine. I find no evidence that God would do anything but embrace a life lived with eudaimonia at its core.
Maybe I’ll go on a one-woman campaign to make eudaimonia a word for our times, as it seems like we desperately need it right about now. Shall I drop it into my next conversation? Good morning, honey. I feel particularly eudaimonious today, how about you? Will I casually place this word into my next Facebook post, then wait for the Likes and Comments? Maybe I’ll create a new bumper sticker and slap it on my truck: Eudaimonia Happens! Would I receive smiles and honks and waves…or maybe less respectful gestures? One thing I can do. I hit the Add to Dictionary button and instantly give eudaimonia a place in my personal vocabulary. While these fantasies might amuse me or gain me a rather eccentric reputation, I doubt these efforts would amount to much. I turn my search inward, as it is me, after all, who feels the tug of energy in this concept. Author Barbara Brown Taylor states that doing teaches you what you need to know.2 I look at all those definitions. They all require some “doing”, some active participation for this eudaimonia thing to take hold. Nothing flourishes or grows without some sort of movement. I think about my shiny New Year’s Resolutions of many months ago, tattered and ignored, languishing on the pages of my journal, partially abandoned. They all are essentially about hopes and dreams and plans for change. If I look closer, I see that some even aim to grow the power of my inner self, or to seek something that is beyond even what I can imagine. I trust that I will be taught something I need to know that is more complex than mere happiness. I decide to re-write those tired old resolutions, right now, despite the rapidly waning year. I will let eudaimonia guide me.
I resolve to flourish as a person, knowing that flourishing includes my body, my emotions and my intellect as well as my spirit. I will unabashedly alter my pathway to include stops along the way to allow time for eudaimonia to emerge. I will choose actions that will lead to happiness, as I search the extravagant dimensions of Divine love. I will live in sacred prosperity, the prosperity of a life richly lived as God’s presence opens up more fully to me.
I like these resolutions a lot better than Lose 10 pounds by spring (too late for that), or Be less judgmental, or Exercise 40 minutes a day, don’t you?
Lest these new resolutions become pretentious, selfish or self-centered, I remind myself that every human being is a soul with skin on it and these souls all have a hunger for, even a right to, eudaimonia, to a flourishing, generously- endowed life. At the very least, people deserve the opportunity and awareness to live into the best life possible. If this push towards eudaimonia is at the deepest part of me, then it must be a part of everyone made in God’s image, inclusive of babies about to be born and persons taking their last breaths. Paul’s blessing to the Ephesians for lives lived in God’s fullness includes all of us, right now, all the time. Eudaimonia becomes then, not just a personal goal, but my prayer for all the world this day.
I cast aside the thin wafer upon which the word happiness is lightly scrawled. I pick up instead this multi-layered nourishing, morsel of eudaimonia– this word, this strange word, this beautiful word, this powerful word that draws me nearer and deeper into the extravagant dimensions of the fullness of God.
1a and b Excerpts from Ephesians 3:16-21, New Jerusalem Bible and The Message. Read the entire passages for a deeper look at what I interpret as eudaimonia.
2Taylor, B. B. (2008). An altar in the world, p. 58. New York: Harper-Collins.
Questions for Reflection:
What is your own definition of happiness?
How do you experience the power of eudaimonia, deep and fulfilling happiness, in your relationship with Spirit?
