Fraying Edges, Raveling Threads

There once was a very learned professor who had earned a wall full of honors and degrees. His head was crammed full of just about everything philosophers of every Age had to say about happiness. Still, he pondered the subject incessantly. In fact he was so obsessed with the question that he decided to set out in search of the wisest and happiest person in the world — wherever it took him, and at whatever cost. After years of travel to distant places he finally was told of a woman who fit the description. And so he set out on a rugged journey to the top of a mountain where this wisest and happiest of all persons lived.

The woman greeted him with a warm smile and a sympathetic ear. She listened patiently for hours as he described his pursuit of happiness through years and years of study and research. At the conclusion of his long discourse, he begged the wise woman to let him…