happiness

Monday, February 19, 2007 T: 22 27 CNY Day 2

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”

When I was in junior college, my GP teacher has advised me against writing on questions regarding happiness. Answering such philosophical questions would be courting my own death. He’s right. Even till now, I think I still am too immature and inexperienced to write about it. So have many, who have spend their lives search for the happiness in their lives and seem still to be unable to find it.

The quote in the beginning is taken from the American Declaration of Independence, a fine and inspiring piece of writing that I know I would be proud of if I am an American. In the movie The Pursuit of Happyness, I was informed that this declaration does not hold happiness to be a right. Life is, freedom is, not happiness. Only the pursuit of happiness, however, is.

Perhaps whoever that participate in writing that declaration has considered that happiness is never lasting and is as temporal as day andi night, and thus the pursuit of happiness is an ongoing process in everybody’s lives. Before I know it, I find myself wondering what is happiness.

In my quest for answers, I tried asking my friends. One interesting reply I’ve gotten is that there is no happiness in thish world. It is an ideal, a goal that we all work towards, beginning from the state of misery to unhappiness. We’ll never reach there. But when I think of all theh kids playing in the playground, oblivious to the world around them, in bliss and joy, ignorant of any pain and suffering in this world, aren’t they happy?

No. Happiness exists. When I’m jubilent, it is when time can pass in a flash. And when I look back at my own life, I remember the times when I’m laughing crazily with my friends in school, when I get back my ‘o’ level results and find myself elated and high, and even when I reflect on my life and realise whata a lucky fool I am. Though these moments of ecstasy and euphoria last for a fleeting moment, it’s perhaps the driving force of life. Yet when I look at the other people whose results are better than mine feeling sad and depressed, I realise that despite how instantaneous, momentary, temporary these moments of happiness are, it is perhaps up to the individual to decide how frequent they want them to be.

Then I start thinking of the South Africans, of the people living in starvation and in inhuman conditions, of the people whose lives wholly depend on a mass of machines, of people whose lives are at the mercy of the diseases that threaten to destroy all hopes, and I wonder if they are entitled to happiness. Is it really up to them to decide whether they can be happy or not, with all the frequent physical pain that they are facing? But look at the faces of the hungry ones who find food, or the heartbreaking eyes of the ones dying when they see their loved ones visit them? Do they not at that point of time feel glad, despite their difficult predicament, while at the same time, another wealthy member of their own kind may find themselves stressed over their careers and business?

Somehow, I believe that we are entitled to happiness, more certain that our Creator did not make us to suffer, but to enjoy ouro lives on Earth – the world He has created for us. Yet for most of us, the pursuit of happiness will be a life-lasting one, partly because of our desire to want more, our constant discontentment with what we have, what we are, and with others. We all sought to seek what we think will bring us happiness – more material possessions, relationships, even religions. Yet maybe attaining happiness can be as simple as appreciating what we have and not take things for granted, like enjoying a cup of coffee in the early morning, looking at the sunrise and just take a break for the power chase for a while.