Aren't they exposed to it every day? Probably at least half of them or more look at magazines that have "inappropriate" pictures in them. As one sixth grader in the hall said of the poster that was taken down, he thought it was hilarious, and didn't even take a second glance at the inappropriate stuff.
Now, I agree that people and kids should not have to see that stuff, but that brings me to the question: what IS happiness? And what is the American Dream, really? We are the only country that guarantees the pursuit of happiness in our Declaration of Independence, but how can you guarantee happiness? That is what I will explore in this blog.
I believe that too many people associate happiness with success or "perfection", but is it even possible to achieve perfection? When you have high expectations for someone or something, and you want them to be perfect, you begin to seek flaws. Like the scientist in The Birthmark. He loves his wife, and wants her to be perfect, but she has this birthmark, this one flaw in her perfection.
The scientist becomes obsessed with this flaw, and it disgusts him. Eventually, his wife begins to hate it, and wants him to get rid of the birthmark. But nature seems to refuse to be perfected, and also makes perfection a death sentence. In the end, his wife is perfect for about five seconds, and then dies. She understood that her husband had never before achieved perfection, but she still wants it done. All his attempts at perfection ended in failure. Perfection is fleeting, and it does not last.
Perfection itself is FLAWED. So why does this still seem to captivate people in their pursuit of happiness? Our satisfaction and self-worth is based on others reactions to us.
So that brings us back to our search for happiness again. This is going in a circle. If we cannot achieve perfection, one supposed "path" to happiness, then what else is there? People also cling to the pursuit of success for happiness.
The dictionary defines success as "the attainment of wealth, favor, or eminence." if you don't know what eminence means, it means "fame or recognized superiority, especially within a particular sphere or profession."
I would beg to differ with that statement. Success is whenever you actually get to something you are reaching for. General George Patton once defined success as how far you bounce when you hit bottom. Success is the light at the end of the tunnel of work. It's the trophy at the end of a championship game. Success may also be a journey. A life well lived that ends at death. If you travel this path of success, you may end up happier than if you were searching for happiness the entire time.
Success seems to be a little more rewarding in our search for happiness than other approaches.
But what about selling happiness? Buying certain perfume, or food or other things. Like McDonalds. They sell HAPPY MEALS. They are trying to sell happiness to people. In The Euphio Question, a group of people are trying to create a machine that will give people happiness whenever they need it. Is that a good thing? The people became addicted to it, forgetting to eat or drink, and they didn't care when bad things happened. But one of them wanted to try and take control of the masses with the euphio. Can we really buy happiness? And besides, happiness is basically a drug. What are endorphins if not a drug? They are the drug that our body sends out to make us happy.
Others have different views on happiness.
'Some keep the Sabbath going to Church –
I keep it, staying at Home –
With a Bobolink for a Chorister –
And an Orchard, for a Dome –
Some keep the Sabbath in Surplice –
I, just wear my Wings –
And instead of tolling the Bell, for Church, Our little Sexton – sings.
God preaches, a noted Clergyman –
And the sermon is never long,
So instead of getting to Heaven, at last –
I’m going, all along.'
-Emily Dickenson (1830-1826)
Emily Dickenson says that she finds happiness in just being outside and observing the things around her. She doesn't need a church when she is "going to Heaven all along". That brings me to Walden by Henry David Thoreau. in it, he says that when he stays at Walden Pond, during his year of seclusion, he feels happy, even though the house he is in has holes in the roof and walls. He spends his time observing, and it makes him happy. You notice a lot more things when you just sit and listen.
Walden makes me think of the book Listen! by Stephanie S. Tolan. In the book, the main character learns to sit and listen to nature, and really feels happy after her mothers death, instead of grieving for her mother and pitying herself about her bad leg.
What both of them are basically saying is that you need to pay attention to the small details. If you enjoy life's small things, and find happiness in them, then you will always be happy. It even reminds me of the book The Stranger. The main character cannot really find happiness, and just kind of takes life for granted. But if you find meaning in life, like religion or something else, then you can be happy.
"I have frequently seen a poet withdraw, having enjoyed the most valuable part of a farm, while the crusty farmer supposed he had got a few wild apples only. Why, the owner does not know it for many years when a poet has put his farm in rhyme, the most admirable kind of invisible fence, has fairly impounded it, milked it, skimmed it, and got all the cream, and left the farmer only the skimmed milk."What Thoreau is saying is that the poet is the one who sees the real happiness in the farm, and takes all the important parts of it - the things that make people happy. he take them with him, and the farmer still believes that the poet has not gotten anything from his farm.
Sometimes we are like that, too. We believe that there is no happiness in something, when we really have not looked to find the happiness, as some people do.
"Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be." -Abraham Lincoln
