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“If we only wanted to be happy, it would be easy, but we want to be happier than other people, which is difficult since we think them happier than they are”—Baron de Montesquieu

You wonder what Montesquieu, eighteenth century Enlightenment philosopher, would make of the pursuit of happiness in this Facebook age. Today when friends showcase their luxurious cruise and cute puppy, their “What, Me Worry?” faces and accomplished children, we the befriended, with our less-than-luminous lives, may feel just a tad shabby.

I have read “The Story of Ferdinand,” a children’s story, to my grandchildren several times. It is about a bull in Spain that preferred smelling flowers under his cork tree to snorting and butting heads and fighting other bulls. One day five men came and picked out what looked to them to be the biggest, baddest bull of all, and took him to Madrid to chase and bore a matador. On the day of the bullfight, when Ferdinand the Fiercest got in the ring and saw the flowers in all the lovely ladies’ hair, he got as close to them as he could, quietly sat down, and enjoyed sniffing the pleasant smells. Ferdinand would not fight, no matter how many times the Picadores stuck him with spears, so they packed him home to his beloved cork tree. The last page of the story shows Ferdinand smelling flowers, accompanied with these final words: “He is very happy.”11

Written by Munro Leaf and published in 1936, this story was burned in Nazi Germany because being true to oneself—not conforming to the herd—was not tolerated, much less advocated.

In “Disiderata,” Max Ehrman wrote: “If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain and bitter, for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.”

Why allow Photoshopped images and spotless profiles spun by Facebook friends get you down?