Let me first say that I have no intention of developing this thought fully in this post. I think it is sort of naive to think that I ever could develop it fully. That being said...
Aristotle talks about how to be happy; self-help plans talk about how to be happy; apparently(according to my friend Vlad) Bhutan has a happiness index to measure their "national" happiness. Tons of people claim to be able to help you become happy. A lot of people complain about how they are not happy. Many just think we don't understand happiness.
My question is really, "Do we want happiness?"
Is it worthwhile to pursue? If we pursue happiness, will we ever find it?
I think that in some ways, we have a poor cultural definition of what happiness is. I mean really, for americans the standard definition of happiness is, in a word, MORE. More what? Anything, anything that our culture has devised as worth pursuing. Maybe that means new shoes or a better car or a bigger house. The point is there is always something else to be acquired. The American culture (and probably others) have attempted to monetize happiness. But then what about poor people? Can that just not afford happiness. What sort of goal for humanity would rest upon the development of economic institutions in order to be fulfilled?
I am not saying that communism makes people any happier. In order to make communism work in large societies you have to eliminate differences between people so that they can be treated "equally". In the Soviet Union those eliminations were just that, eliminations of people. I daresay that happiness is hardly worth having if it means that a few million others must die so that you might be happy.
So maybe happiness is not a goal, maybe it is a byproduct. Maybe happiness should not be a goal. Happiness is an ephemeral little bird which when you try to catch it, it flies away. But, when you have something better to do, it lands on your shoulder. I know, that description is trite, but I don't think it is too far off the mark. Think to yourself, what makes you happier, trying to be happy or doing something else well.
I wholly admit that I can't "make" anyone happy. I don't believe you make yourself happy either. I do believe you can make yourself miserable however by trying to become happier.
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2 comments:
Happiness...it's a feeling. I would rather have Joy, Peace, Patience, give kindness and love.
Happiness...a feeling that masks our self righteousness, a feeling of okay, a loss of guilt, a holding of possessions, can be lost and gained in a moment, always unstable.
I'd rather have Jesus than anything this world could offer. When all is stripped away, when I have nothing, I have God who promises to never leave me nor forsake me - who knew me before I was born - and knows all before and after me. It all defies logic and happiness.
I don't know what I would rather have. Clearly, there are baser parts of me that just want to be satiated, contented. But there is always something else that gnaws at me. I have never been truely satisfied by happiness or what people say is happiness. I have been much more "happy" when striving for something greater whether that be mentally, physically or spiritually.
People confuse joy with happiness, patience with kindness, peace with anything that is not war, love with lust. The fact that two people speak about the same thing as they talk is amazing enough. It is interesting that Plato identified this issue 2500 years ago, the dialogues are about profound misunderstandings where one party argued a concept and the other argued a concept with the same name but a clearly different understanding of that concept.
Your comment that you would rather have Jesus than anything this world could offer is interesting. It treats Jesus as the same type of thing as Happiness. In that context it is like an emotion, which we have, hold in our hearts. Is that a right concept of God, do we just have Him or not have Him. I don't pretend to know.
I have always been interested in the depth of faith. I feel like the idea that I believe because God will not forsake me is something that one can naturally understand. Is there a deeper aspect of faith. What about a faith that acknowledges, prays for, desires that God not forsake one; even though God has the right to be separated.
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