Chasing Happiness

“The Pursuit of Happyness” is such an endearing movie, isn’t it? Will Smith pretends to be poor and cries while his son sleeps in the subway station bathroom. And then he gets the job at Dean Witter and now I’m crying. Well not really but the title of the movie makes me think. The pursuit of one’s own happiness is somewhat of a sacred right in our culture, considered the prerogative of everyone and even a life-philosophy by some. “Whatever makes you happy” is often the answer given to the question of “what should I do?” Or “whatever you’re passionate about.” But what if you’re passionate about the wrong thing? What if you being happy isn’t and end in itself?
 
Have you ever noticed how concerned people are with what they like? “Oh I like that a lot.” “No no I don’t like that at all.” “He gets on my nerves.” “I can’t stand people who think they’re better than you, ya know?” “I’m a cat person.” “I’m a morning person.”  “I’m a blah blah blah (insert endless list of preferences). It’s only natural. We are very interested with what pleases or displeases us. Need I cite to any number of Facebook profiles where the “about me” section is a disgustingly long rambling list of everything the author could think of to include about their interests? Why does this matter? It matters to us, of course, because our likes and dislikes are reflections of our personality, and our personality is the one we’re most occupied with. There is no limit to the amount of time we spend imagining how other’s think of us. This occupation with our own personas easily translates or evolves into a perpetual concern with our own happiness. Do I like who I am? Do I like what I’m doing? If not, the pursuit continues.
 
An old German by the name of Immanuel Kant once said “let us seek happiness in others; but for ourselves, perfection—whether it brings us happiness or pain.” This obviously requires a determination of what “perfection” is, but even so, I think it’s profound. It may sound like an overly dutiful perception of life—but maybe it’s suggesting that the surest way to secure happiness is to stop trying to fulfill your own needs and look towards the needs of others. If there is any such thing as perfection of the self surely it is the freedom from the self. We are by design self-interested beings. This could explain our belief that by fulfilling our own needs we will find the most satisfaction. To deny ourselves much of what we would naturally incline to seems unpleasant, but how many times do we find ourselves on the other side of indulgence, bored with what was only moments ago a satisfying state of being, looking for something else to please us again? Even those with utterly predictable lives often rely on a host of simple and repetitive pleasures that should they be deprived of them, their mood sours and they wear their discontent on their sleeves. Whether it be acknowledgement paid by others, having a luxury car, not having to put up with annoying people, or making sure all your personal accessories are made by Apple —whatever your pleasurable poison—I say if you’re the object of it, it’s fleeting.
 
Boy, with all this austere writing, I should probably go live in a monastery somewhere and kneel on rocks in prayer half the day long. I don’t deny my own faults. Most of what I write about is really a complaint against myself. It’s my own struggle with these issues that inspires my writing (except the Facebook page thing). I guess as I watch myself and those around me attempt to find happiness, I can’t help but notice that it is mostly our own needs and desires that guide our search. We do this from the accepted position that trying to be happy is a good thing, and I think it is. But I think we mistake being happy with having everything we want.  Or being liked by everyone we know, or having the perfect body, or having the perfect house that we somehow forget is just a house and not an indisputable sign of one’s intrinsic worth. This leads to a very circumstantial sense of happiness and one that doesn’t do much for anybody else.
 
If I’m going to be a monk, I guess I’ll have to give up my iPhone, which sucks, because I sure do love my iPhone. Although I can’t wait for the 5. Do you think it will have swipe text? I heard you might be able to use it as your Visa. I hope so.  I’ll be happy then.
 
 
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