It's a simple question, just one word. But we feel like it is grossly underused in its most basic and elemental context, that being our lives. Why do we do the things we do? One would hope that on a small scale we do things that will make us happy.
Makes sense. Where it gets lost, in my opinion, is in our general inability to define our own happiness as a human population. It is something that is unique to each individual, but at the same time, there are a myriad of constants throughout. The constants are more easily recognizable when instead of racking our brain for all things happy, we rather ask ourselves what we know for a fact does not make us happy. Things that are happiness adverse.
When put this way, the question becomes a lot less materialistic. So many times we feel the giddy tingle in our chest from some new purchase - a toy, an acquisition - and we tell ourselves, "This is what happiness feels like." I would call it more of a feeling of excitement, which is knit-picky you might say, because when you think about it, in that moment of initiation, the two almost feel like one in the same.
Our misstep most times is in confusing the two, which is understandable seeing as they both feel so similar. But one lingers. Something newly bought, from the minute one starts using it, becomes older and less austere to one's eye because in that individuals life, the thing, whatever it may be, has become commonplace. And so that glowing feeling at their core fades and they lust for that fulfillment once more; a fulfillment that can now only be achieved by a thing better and more impressive than the last; something that will excite them.
Happiness isn't a feeling that fades over the passing of time. It's either there or it isn't, and it can be there one moment and gone the next and then, maybe years later, it can come again like a flash and hold you tight. But it doesn't fade. It's not mood lighting. It's a definitive on or off. Lights on, you're happy. Lights off, you're not. Dimming them down is merely exciting.
And it's really just as simple as that. Having the lights off makes us unhappy and so we turn them on. We are encountered with two choices, and we make a decision. Why? Because at our basest form, it makes us happy. By the minutest degree, of course. Because the light off makes us unhappy.
Where this point is less mute is in a situational context. I've come to that point in life that comes to everyone at one time or another. For me it came after receiving my diploma and traveling through Europe. Unfortunately for some, it's a crossroads that shows up too early. For others, I fear they won't chance up on it until it's too late. It's not so much a point as it is a period of time across which the importance of your passions becomes clear to you. It doesn't happen all at once and I for one am thankful for all the events and people in my life that have made this realization so clear and so remarkably easy to pursue. And in this day and age, it's a pursuit that so many times goes unfulfilled due to whatever set of circumstances. In so few and cliched words, it's the pursuit of happiness. Or maybe more specifically the attainment of happiness. The Buddhists called it Enlightenment, but I don't think it to be so lofty. It's the easiest thing to identify the few important aspects of life that make you sincerely happy. Well, maybe that's not entirely true. It's quite an enigmatic decision one has to make honestly. Because if you're like me, you're like most people, and we're all in that constant need of financial security to survive.
[cold]
Now how secure we really need to be is up to the individual, surprisingly so. Ignorance is bliss. Shocking? When I word it like that probably not, but don't be so coy. Anyone can say that...
