INTRODUCTION

I realized the other day that you don’t have to be a wonderful person to think and act in accord with this high standard. Being sometimes wonderful is pretty good, though with conscious effort you can be wonderful more often.

Do you personally know wonderful people, besides your spouse, children, parents or other relatives? (I’m removing their eligibility because, after all, most of us probably want to think of loved one’s in glowing terms, as nothing short of wonderful. This is the case even if one or more might seem considerably less than wonderful, that is, a scoundrel, scalawag, miscreant or maggot.)

Who do you know that approaches your standards of wonderful people? (If you have a pen and paper nearby, jot down the names.)

Most of us view any number of varied historical figures as wonderful people, given what we know of them in relation to our own values. Unfortunately, whatever their achievements historical or otherwise, it’s not easy to know with confidence what they were actually like, character-wise, and this difficulty increases the farther back in time they lived. Many world leaders, sports stars, Hollywood characters, artists and celebrities are associated with wonderful qualities. We might esteem such luminaries as wonderful people, but this is not the same as actually knowing a wonderful person or two, or many for that matter, up close and personal.

UNDERSTANDING WONDERFULNESS

What is wonderfulness all about, do you suppose? By wonderful, most people mean someone who is unusually good, as in amazing, awesome, astonishing, astounding, eye-opening, fabulous, prodigious, staggering, stunning, stupendous, sublime, surprising, marvelous and/or simply gobsmackingly great. You get the idea–wonderfulness is a pretty high standard. If someone occasionally accuses you, in a nice way, of being wonderful, you probably feel pretty good about it. However, it might be best not to take such flattery seriously. You certainly would not want anyone who said that about you to think you wholeheartedly agree! That would seem immodest, perhaps Trumpian, which certainly does not rank among the highest of wonderfulness qualities.

Still, we admire those we believe to be wonderful, or at least to have a few wonderful qualities. We don’t always expect them to be wonderful (good and decent, yes) all the time for they are, despite their wonderfulness, still human. But, it delights us when they are wonderful in one way or another and we notice it. Every such act that you witness strengthens your sense of their wonderfulness.

Can we be wonderful in the way we live our lives, much of the time? The challenges to being wonderful are legion, including such distressing, stress-inducing and vexatious annoyances as the Republican Party, the coronavirus, crime, precipitous drops in the stock market, global warming, superstition in general and religious fundamentalism in particular and aging and death, to note but nine of at least thousands of threats to the pursuit and enjoyment of wonderfulness.

Nonetheless, my view is, yes, of course we can be wonderful, more or less. However, being so is more likely if we recognize and value the nature of wonderfulness and become aware of ways to incorporate more of said qualities into our individual personas.

RECOGNIZING A REAL WELLNESS PERSPECTIVE ON WONDERFULNESS

Is there such a thing as a real wellness perspective on wonderfulness?

No and Yes! No, in that there is no single REAL wellness perspective on wonderfulness recognized by most Americans. Yes, in that there are many REAL wellness perspectives on pursuing wonderfulness. To stimulate your consideration of such perspectives, I recommend three one-page readings, all short, memorable and to the point.

The first is a speech delivered in the late 19th century by the great 19th century orator Robert Green Ingersoll entitled, The Improved Man. The second is a set of qualities that describe secular humanism, available on the website of the Center for Inquiry. The third are found in the seven tenets of The Satanic Temple. Temple members do not believe in any god or a devil; their devotions are to reason, tolerance, liberty and science, as well as compassion and justice.

While there are too many qualities of wonderfulness to list, these three sources of such qualities identify enough elements to spark a glorious advance from wherever you are on the continuum from dreadful to wonderful. We can all move to the right along this imaginary continuum, even if you’re the Pope. Especially if you’re the Pope!

While or after reading these qualities of wonderfulness, please ask yourself two questions:

1. How am I doing? Do I have some or perhaps most of the qualities mentioned?

2. Which of the qualities can I work on to embellish my already impressive degree of wonderfulness?

Best of luck pursuing your unique REAL wellness perspective on and manifestation of wonderfulness.