Thursday, November 14, 2013

Happily Ever After

Pic by: http://happiness-one-quote-time.blogspot.com/2013/03/carry-on-luggage.html
With over 76,600,000 web definition results on Google, this website generalizes the concept of happiness as “the state of well-being characterized by emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy.” Happiness is to be at peace with ourselves, and to show respect for every person, no matter the age, ethnicity, or color. Happiness is enjoying every single blessed day like it is the last one on earth. Why does bringing happiness into our lives seem so hard to define? For instance, while some people parallel happiness with money, others say it may come with the age, and others associate happiness with the love for their families or affairs. 

Money is like the breeze that embraces us for a while; then in a blink of an eye will leave us without a trace. In the Times Magazine article, “Do We Need $75,000 a Year to Be Happy?” written by Belinda Luscome, the economist Angus Deaton and psychologist Daniel Kahneman found that 85% of Americans felt happy each day. However, the society keeps buying themselves happy moments, by spending and wasting their money on fancy and materialistic articles, or traveling the world just trying to fulfill emptiness in their mind and heart. On the other hand, Deaton states that “High incomes don’t bring you happiness, but they do bring you a life you think is better” (Luscome 2). The reality is, money could buy only those happy moments, but it might leave us as empty as we were before our purchases. Therefore, we should not keep ignoring that we could find happiness even in the smallest detail life would bring us, at any stage of our age.

As Nicholas Bakalar states in his article “Happiness May Come with Age, Study Says,” a large Gallup poll found that people get happier as they get older. The article reveals a strange and realistic way that elders perceive happiness when they reach their 80s. Therefore, could our age define our happiness? Most young people tend to confuse happiness with the pleasure of having what they desire. However, when they become older, they laugh about that immature way of thinking. According to Andrew J. Oswald, a professor of psychology at Warwick Business School in England, who was interview by Bakalar, “It’s a very encouraging fact that we can expect to be happier in our early 80s than we were in our 20s…And it’s not being driven predominantly by things that happen in life. It’s something very deep and quite human that seems to be driving this” (Bakalar 2). Although, some elders could lament of not doing much in their early life; perhaps, they might not have major studies, save enough money, or fail in parenting. On the other hand, others had found happiness in themselves or through someone they loved.

Happiness is similar to love; they walk hand in hand like best friends walk through the park on a sunny day. Christians believes that a partner might bring his wife happiness, by demonstrating his appreciation and love to his woman. As the Holy Bible states, “If a man has recently married, he must…stay at home and bring happiness to the wife he has married” (Deuteronomy 24:5). On the other hand, love could not lead us to happiness because when a couple is divorcing, their love and passion could be transformed into anger and unhappiness; this transformation could live for a while, or decades. Although, Christians says that when we believe in God, contentment seems easy to find. However, it does not matter if person loves to follow a religion in order find happiness; when a person loves what they do or fell in love with someone, he would be as happy as a recently fed baby.

To sum on, happiness is not define by being rich, getting older, or loving someone. For, money would not buy our happiness; it just confuses us with happy moments we may buy at some clothing store, travel agency, and etcetera. We might be happier by the time we get older, but why do we need to wait for so long? A person could give us the affection, love and pleasures that we might need; but those might not guarantee our happiness after all. The real definition of happiness is our personal view of life. In addition, happiness is in us; it is in how we love ourselves for who we are and what we might have under any circumstance. And that is the true meaning of living happily ever after. 



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Luscome, Belinda. Do We Need $75,000 a Year to Be Happy? TIME Magazine. TIME INC, 2013. Web.
< http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2019628,00.html>

Bakalar, Nicholas. Happiness May Come With Age, Study Says. The New York Times, June 1, 2010. Web.
< http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/01/health/research/01happy.html?_r=0>

Holy Bible, New International Version. Deuteronomy 24:5. NIV. Biblica, Inc. Bible Gateaway, 2011. Web.
< http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy+24%3A5&version=NIV>

Holy Bible, New International Version. 1 John 4:8. NIV. Biblica, Inc. Bible Gateaway, 2011. Web.
Holy Bible, New International Version. Ecclesiastes 2:26. NIV. Biblica, Inc. Bible Gateaway,  2011. Web.
< http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ecclesiastes%202:26&version=NIV>


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