Happiness is a Choice You Make: Lessons from a year among the oldest old by John Leland

The British cultural critic Terry Eagleton writes that the meaning of life lies in learning how to form mutually enriching relationships, like musicians in a jazz ensemble, who create melodic openings for the other players by inventing melody lines for themselves. Love, he writes, “means creating for another the space in which he might flourish, at the same time as he does this for you. The fulfilment of each becomes the ground for the fulfilment of the other. When we realize our natures in this way, we are at our best.” This is perhaps a more aspirational spin on the Buddhist idea that love is wishing for the happiness of the beloved.