Claire F. Rich
Humanities 501
Happiness - Extra Credit
When considering happiness it is important not to be distracted by it’s flashy cousin pleasure. Pleasure is intense, but fleeting. It’s dependent on exterior stimuli. I feel pleasure when horseback riding, kayaking, and dancing. That light giddy feeling
Are pleasure and joy different?
lasts only slightly longer than the activity.
Happiness is a calm satisfaction, a [foundation
“Foundation” of what? In which sense?
] that withstands the chaos of mundane life. It can’t be created by a single pleasurable act. Happiness can only be created over time from stuff [more substantial
“More substantial” in which sense?
] than novel activities. [A sad person doesn’t become a happy person after one lighthearted afternoon
1) Is sadness the opposite of happiness? What about joy instead?
2) Is a “happy person” a person that has attained happiness?
.] Fortunately, happiness can’t be destroyed easily either. Day to day disappointments and setbacks are just dust to be swept from the foundation of happiness. The rubble of painful events may take more time to clear away so that happiness can be exposed again. It is only an extraordinary event or incessant hammering that can crack the foundation that is true happiness
**So, what is happiness? What defines it? Which sort of “calm satisfaction” is it? Is it the calm satisfaction of the mathematician after solving a problem?
.
I have happiness. [It comes from my family and just as my family wasn’t created as a whole in one Genesis moment, I did not reach this state because of a single event. My happiness comes from being at the center of a spreading ripple of family. My happiness comes from knowing my center is a ripple of my parents’ center and their’s is a ripple of my grandparents’ center. I reach back in time and forward to a future that is unknown and open, yet not empty or frightening
**1) In which sense are all these “sources” of your happiness? Show the relation between what they represent for you and your definition/view of happiness.
**2) Does this mean that happiness “comes from” the exterior? Is it then a question of being “lucky” regarding the conditios in which we live?
.]
My happiness comes from being a woman in a series of women.
The long and painful end of my mother’s life was an incessant hammering at the heart of the [my foundation of happiness
Do you mean by “foundation” that there is something, ome sort of necessary condition, which must be in place for happiness to exist?
]. Years of saying goodbye to her, the center from which I rippled into my own center, tempered my happiness. It was strengthened even as it was buried under spilled food and urine soaked sheets. Caring for her, as she cared for her mother, [reinforced my place as a part of an ever widening circle
Is that “circle” something others can also experience or is it rather your own very unique way of understanding your place in the world? Can you see a bit more about what is behind your seeing yourself as part of that circle?
.] Now, a year later [my happiness is reemerging
So, was it always there then?
.]
Hearing my daughter’s family laugh and giggle over breakfast across the street while I watered in the front yard [brought that feeling of happiness back
So, happiness is a “feeling” then? A sort of emotion? Can a particular experience ring “happiness”? How would you distinguish experiences that bring joy, even extreme joy, and happiness?
] to the surface after my mother was gone. Now that the giggling over breakfast happens thousands of miles away and the family across the street isn’t mine, I am sad, but not less happy. Seeing my younger daughter bake using her grandmother’s recipes reinforces [that feeling of happiness that comes from connection
1) So, can we experience different forms of happiness at a particular moment of our life?
2) How is the “happiness” that “comes from connection” different from other forms of happiness?
.] Hearing my son and the young men and women he has known since childhood deep in philosophical debates as the night stretches toward dawn brings that feeling. Standing with my husband in our yard contemplating the spreading ripples of our life together is that feeling of calm satisfaction that is happiness. [During these passive acts of observing, my happiness is most evident
So, would you say happiness is more contemplation than action?
.]
[Knowing the source of my happiness does not give me a road map to future happiness
Do you follow, at least, those “sources” as a reference? If not, which sort of “guides” do you follow?
]. It isn’t that simple, there is no magic A to B correspondence. [Quitting my job so I can horseback ride and kayak will not increase my happiness
Why not?
.] [I need to stay involved and connected to those who are important to me, and in addition welcome and connect to those who are important to them. I have to embrace small moments as well as huge events. I have to be ready to forgive and ask forgiveness. I have to listen and share. It is time invested in relationships that has repaid me with happiness
. ]
**1)OK, but why is all this important? What exactly does it bring to you and why you think so?
**2)Is the search for happiness different from the search for joy?
I am happy.
8.5/10
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