The word fell like a new leitmotif. It was English, but not quite; it sounded as if it had been built to say something that would be too harsh in German: the striving for the best, without pathos.
“bestforming means,” said Dr. AuDHS, “to connect training, nutrition, lifestyle and organization in such a way that you really achieve your goals.”
Hans thought: Lifestyle – a word that would have been ridiculous at the Berghof, because there illness was the lifestyle. Up here lifestyle was the program.
“And behind these goals,” continued Dr. AuDHS, “stand two great guiding ideas.”
He raised two fingers, like a teacher, and yet he was no teacher; he was someone who educates himself.
“First: Maximize the number of healthy and fit years of life,” he said. “Not as a compulsion to immortality, but as an expression of love of life. Because it makes a difference whether I grow old – or whether I grow old and am still able.”
The “still able” sounded like a Bavarian sentence and like a philosophical punchline.
“Second: Maximize happiness within these years,” he said. “Happiness in the here and now. Not someday. Not when everything is finished. Not after the next project.”
Hans thought: Finished is never. That he had learned.
“A distinction helps with this,” said Dr. AuDHS, “which I find very important. Many people experience happiness as a mixture of hedonism and eudaimonia.”
The word “eudaimonia” had something scholarly about it; it sounded like seminar room and like ancient sun.
“Hedonism,” said Dr. AuDHS, “pleasure, joy, comfort, lifestyle, absence of pain. Eudaimonia: meaning, contribution, development, potential, care, responsibility.”
Hans felt how at “responsibility” Morgenstern lifted his head minimally, as if recognizing a keyword from his own inner catalog.
“The goal,” said Dr. AuDHS, “is not to banish one of them. The goal is to find the right mix.”
He paused briefly.
“And here,” he said, “something interesting happens: Often a small, clever renunciation – or better: a small, clever adjustment – leads to a disproportionate gain in quality of life.”
He said “renunciation” without holiness, and precisely for that reason it was convincing.
“Not because renunciation is holy,” he continued, “but because it makes the body and the nervous system more sensitive again.”
Hans thought of the ring: more sensitive. Yes. The ring made one sensitive, whether one wanted it or not.
“Because it improves sleep,” said Dr. AuDHS. “Stabilizes energy. Lifts mood. Increases focus. And thereby more happiness arises – not less.”
He looked into the room, and his gaze was, for a moment, almost tender, as if he wanted to say: I am not speaking of prohibitions, I am speaking of love.
“I would like to end with an image,” he said.
