b'She comes bearing gifts. Over a cup of lapsang souchong, she pulls out a copy of the World Happiness Report 1and starts reading aloud: Responses from more than one million people in 130 countries surveyed by the Gallup World Poll indicate that financial generositymeasured as whether one has donated to charity in the past monthis one of the top six predictors of life satisfaction around the world. . .In one small study conducted with 20 Canadian toddlers, children were given eight edible treats and asked to share some of these treats with a puppet. Throughout the study, childrens facial responses were captured on film and later coded for happiness. Coders observed that toddlers showed larger smiles when giving treats away than when receiving treats them-selves, and this result has been replicated in a handful of subsequent studies with larger samples. 2We all knew that already, deep down, didnt we? We all knew that the happiness in the pursuit of happiness preempts neither the laws of ecology nor the bounds of ethics, didnt we? Do we really need some newfangled demigoddess, much less one whose name in English sounds awfully prosaic, to remind us? 3Evidently, we do.1 https://worldhappiness.report/ 2 World Happiness Report, UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (March 20, 2019), Chapter Four.3 In Farsi, Great Decelerations name is more mellifluous:.8'