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This story originally appeared in the Jackson Free Press. It was added to the Mississippi Free Press website in 2025.
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Harvard psychologist and author of “Stumbling on Happiness,” Dan Gilbert espouses that the secret of happiness is contained in these four tips:

1. Accrue wealth, power and prestige. Then lose it.
2. Spend as much of your life in prison as you possibly can.
3. Make someone else really, really rich.
4. Never ever join the Beatles.

I’m kidding, of course, but in a video posted on the Web site TED: Ideas Worth Spreading, Gilbert presents an intriguing answer to the questions of “Why are we happy? Why aren’t we happy?” It might not be what you expect.

Ronni Mott, award-winning writer, talented artist and peace-loving yogi, whose beautiful soul left us on February 2. She was 64.