Seeking Comfort

There are basically two sorts of people: those who find pleasure in comfort and those who find pleasure in disturbing comfortable notions. You cannot choose which kind of person you are. It is an essential component of individual temperament.

I am a comfort-destroyer. And yet I have many friends who are comfort-seekers. But this is common. Relationships are often complementary.

Ironically, comfort-destroyers eventually make life more comfortable for comfort-seekers because they lead them to products and practices that make life easier.

No Place is Better Than Home

No place is better than home. “East or west, home is best” — upon completing a round-the-world trip, Andrew Carnegie illustrated the universality of that sentiment with two stories:

• After hearing that he came from a country where rivers froze, tapioca workers in the woods near Singapore felt pity on him and invited him to come live with them.

• A Laplander, having made a fortune and traveled to all the great cities of the world, came back to his native town, Tromso, and built a two-story house — which by local standards was a mansion.