In Staring at the Sun, Yalom reminds us of Schopenhauer's dictum that it is only what a man is that counts, neither wealth, nor status, nor good reputation makes us happy.
Is Yalom saying that happiness is, in itself, the ultimate goal, the object of life? The idea seems like what you aim for--a shedding of all learned value in order to strip down to a reality, an essential you. Something that you have been seeking for some time, long before you left for California.
We know that material possessions, though attracting, never satisfy. We know early on that things anchor us and never free us.
What others think of us is transient, I think. Though it was important to my father that he go to his grave with his name intact; I myself can see that, like possessions, reputation is mutable and tarnishes and leaves us with a murky reflection, sometimes so indistinct that we, ourselves, can not see or know it.
Yalom says that we need a clear conscience, in order to know ourselves, And that in the end it is our interpretation of experience that brings happiness--not the experiences themselves.
