An Adorable Answer

- To a Seemingly Impossible Question

Apr 30, 2025

This is as relevant to building happiness as it is for building The Well-being Society, therefore cross posting here. For those dear readers subscribed to both of my substacks, I apologize for the doubles and take the chance to doubly Thank You again! -

Jane Xu, PhD, MPH, MS

On a social media platform someone asked a seemingly impossible question; an obviously happy lady gave an “adorable” answer.

Diana Cretus’ answer to “How can one be happy without money?”:

“Looking at adorable animals:

Happy already?

Alright, my work here is done.”

Thank you, Diana, for letting your team show us how to be happy! And without money!!

Seriously, when you think about it, humans invented money for our convenience to exchange goods….

But nowadays, money seems to have such a superpower over humans, and to many, their “happiness”!

Right, animals don’t have money, but they can be very happy many times.

Have we forgotten all about those happy times when our ancestors lived without money even being invented?

Not to say that we can really live without any money in our modern society, and be happy.

But we seem to have forgotten something important in all this “modernization”….

A central image in the short story below got the main character pondering along the same line:

Is Modern Life a Good Life?

Jane Xu, PhD, MPH, MS

Apr 5

Or the lion, lying under the Sun relaxing, had a better one?

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