Happiness and Life

"Happiness is the meaning an purpose in life, the whole aim and end of human existence."

                                                                                                         -Aristotle

Though blunt, Aristotle's point makes a lot of sense simply because nobody purposely pursues things that make themselves depressed. Personally, I linked this to "being" in that we naturally pursue "being" and it is generally considered to be the ultimate good (or why would we bother to try looking?), thus happiness. More on this in a bit though. To further examine being, we need to look at the Hierarchy of Needs once more.

It's a great vehicle to the exploration of happiness, but is the happiness achieved by fulfilling these needs different from one another (different levels of happy) or is there just one state of happiness? Our great example in class was that one may be happier to receive a larger slice of cake than a sliver of the same dessert, but less happy to get, say, six cakes. That said, optimum happiness can be said to be striving to find that "sweet spot" of not too much and not too little (a la Goldilocks).


From a psychological standpoint however, happiness is really just a series of chemical reactions in the brain. That said, if we could artificially synthesize that happiness in the form of a machine that could make us feel that way indefinitely... is it really the same as happiness created through life experience? Why would we bother with the other elements of life if we could achieve happiness, which we apparently strive for, simply by lying in a bed?

The common idea of how to achieve happiness from our class came as simply achieving the subjective goals of what would make us happy. These aren't necessarily material, but it's essentially a set of constantly changing guidelines to pursue with the mentality that, "If I get this, I'll be happy." Now trying to fulfill these goals is like filling a bottomless glass, but as my peer stated, life's not about filling the glass in its entirety, but getting as close as we can.

It's a fantastic way to live one's life, but something about it doesn't feel right to me. I mean if finding happiness is just as simple as establishing and striving to fulfilling a want, then why are so many people unhappy? To quote singer Stacio Oraccio, "There's gotta be more to life, than chasing down every temporary high to satisfy me". Her lyric is in reference to God, but that shouldn't deter those who do not hold the faith though because it suggests something more in our lives, perhaps "being". It all comes down to whether we have some purpose in this world or not. If we do, then we strive towards something more in our lives, but if not we're merely grains of sand in the whole that is the universe. Think about it. If the later is true, then we might as well just lie in a bed with synthesized happiness seeping through our veins because it's guaranteeing happiness, something we may or may not find in our own lives.

I'm not arguing that we shouldn't be pursuing what we want, but I think there's something more to life than a constantly changing chain of wants dependent on the day of the week. I'm not saying we should all drop everything and pursue "being" either. What I do think is that maybe there's a reason we're drawn to some wants opposed to others. It's why some people choose to be engineers rather than painters, architects instead of professional divers. I feel we do have a purpose in our lives and that's to be precisely who we are. We are all brought into this world intentionally with certain skills, talents and wants that will define our lives. The difference between this and our class example is because I'm saying our lives are governed by pursuing the unique wants that we were made for. We may live in a world of becoming, but I think that we each have the ounce of being within us in the form of our purpose. We aren't bound to follow it and that purpose may not even be set in stone, but by fulfilling those innermost wants and desires we are doing what we were born for and that is true happiness, the purpose of human existence.

Never stop questioning.