Happiness

Happiness in the 21^st Century is a beautiful, and yet somehow deceptive, abstraction. One may appear happy, but this may just be a façade, a means of hiding from the world as to let it discover you, in order to cover the impotence of that given individual. On the other hand, a person can appear to have hate and anger weaved into their heart and soul, but can be the happiest person to ever walk god’s green earth, because they have somehow achieved bliss, and bliss comes first on the road to happiness. So you might ask; what is the definition of true happiness? The Denotative meaning is to experience good fortune, pleasure, contentment, or joy; but what is the connotative meaning of the word (I figured these words would be to the liking of my English teacher)? This is where the deception that is happiness comes into play, in that it is such an abstraction, there is no possible way for it to be generalized in such a way as our society is constantly doing.

Ultimately, happiness reflects the personality of the individual, coupled the reactions of the personality to real life experiences, not just the happy ones. Too often in our society we see people that have a great job, make good money, have a great family, and no life problems, and yet they are still unhappy. But a person who it would seem that would be less happy; living pay check to pay check, sometimes working long hours, a family that clashes on occasions, and has experienced tragedies, can be the happiest man in the world. How could this be? There is one simple explanation for this: They love what they do for a living, as the ancient philosopher Confucius once said “If you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life”. They also have love for their family and are willing to do whatever it takes to ease the bickering, and have made peace with the tragedies of their lives. So in a short answer, in order to achieve true happiness, one must first achieve absolute bliss.