Over at Kate's, she asks the question “What’s the secret to happiness?” She asks many good questions, and reminds me of myself when I was half my age. My automatic reaction was to say I have no clue, but really, I do. I posted this comment:
I always felt like the mentally handicapped were happier than most people.
They generally aren't saddled with the stress of responsibility and the wants we have been told we want. Their needs are basic and met. Food, shelter and people. It's a simple existence.
I'm not saying I envy their life or anything, just that maybe we'd be happier if our lives were simple. To us, It’s sad that they have to live that way, but are THEY sad?
I suppose we don’t really know if they’re sad, or if they find themselves wishing they were like us, but I am like us (kind of) and I find myself wishing I was less like us. Really. I see them in the food court at the Mall, being happily led around with a content look on their faces, and I find myself wishing that I had a lot less to think about and more people around for support.
Think about all the junk and clutter we have infested our lives with in an effort to satisfy us. Does any of it really make us happier? Are we happier with all this stuff than we were before we had it?
I think about the happiest days of my life, and they were many years ago, before my life was infested with cell phones, Internet, mp3 players, big TVs and the general clutter that is associated with modern life. All that stuff is supposed to make our lives easier (or so they claim) but does it do anything but complicate it? Complications lead to stress, and stress makes us unhappy.
We struggle to pay for it all, worry about whether we have the latest and greatest [whatever it is] technology, while in reality, the life we had was just as good as the one we have, at least as far as the happy part is concerned. That’s why people generally talk about “the good old days” and reminisce about times long ago. It isn’t that they’re getting old, it’s that they’re getting smarter.
For example, the Super Bowl spawned the sale of thousands of high-definition TVs. Meanwhile, the game was played in the rain, with fuzzy camera shots and raindrops spoiling the beauty of the event. The complaints I have heard centered on the fact that all they got was high-def rain. The game looked better in low-def. More stuff, more stress and no satisfaction. Is anyone going to pine away for the good-old days of Super Bowl 41, when they paid $3000 for a TV and watched high-definition rain?
The trouble with living in my Utopian world of simplicity is that I would have to drop out of society in order to live that way. Modern life and the world as it is prohibits me from doing that. Before I knew what was happening, I got sucked in with the rest of you. I think it all started with getting a Social Security card, and went downhill from there. Our lives are inundated with clutter, products and so-called modern conveniences. All of those things clog up our lives and minds until we have accepted them as a part of us, and we believe that we cannot live without them, when in fact, we did before – quite nicely.
Timbuk 3 actually did a song about it, back in the good old days…
Don't want nothin’ fancy,
Don't need nothin’ new.
Nothing too expensive,
Just a sinful life with you.
Give me something borrowed,
I'll buy you something blue.
I'll trade this life of sorrow
For a sinful life with you.
The point is (finally) that happiness is simple, or at least it should be. Find it where you will, but I don’t think that happiness lies in the next hot consumer product or whatever the folks in marketing tell us we need in order to make us happy. I’m happy doing this, and it doesn’t cost a nickel.
Sometimes, the more we chase after something, the faster it runs. Maybe we need to get off this treadmill for a minute and focus?
Over at Kate's, she asks the question “What’s the secret to happiness?” She asks many good questions, and reminds me of myself when I was half my age. My automatic reaction was to say I have no clue, but really, I do. I posted this comment:
8 comments:
(Standing up and applauding.)
Great post. I lose sight sometimes.
Never heard of Timbuk 3, but I love those lyrics.
Like a said before, its like watching my Cat so happy with no cares in the world just grateful for what she has...I think our pets can teach us alot in life...as corny as that sounds.
Very well said. Especially that last paragraph.
I am happy, I hope you are too Anthony.
Hey cool spider man!
What an AWESOME post! I, too, often find myself longing for the "good old days."
I have an aunt who is mentally handicapped. I would not call her happy. She has mood swings, gets very frustrated when she can't do things like get out of the car b/c she has accidentally hit the lock & since she thinks she has already unlocked the car door, she doesn't think it's the lock preventing her from opening the door. These kinds of things throw her into a tizzy for HOURS. She doesn't understand why she can't get married and move out on her own. BUT the simplest things will make her happy - ecstatic even - for those moments.
Well, that explains why they look so happy when they're out mall-walking.
In 1975, I made $86 a week, and I don't think I'm any happier now - and I earn twice that much now.
but finding the happiness in the material things can be so darned cool!
I once had somebody tell me happiness is really just those little things in everyday life that happen. When you're happy, you don't think about it much, you just breeze through life.
It's when we're sad that we focus on things we think make us happy.
That's what she said.
This is one of my favorite short stories from the Czech Republic.
OPTIMISM and PESSIMISM
There once lived a king who had twin sons. Though they looked exactly alike, their personalities were different as night and day. One was a devout pessimist, the other an incurable optimist.
When they came of age, the king decided it was time to open their eyes to the other side of life. He would do it through the gifts he gave them.
For the pessimist, he went to the royal jeweler. "I would like him to have the finest watch ever made," he said. "Money is no object. Jewels, diamonds, gold, platinum -- the best. And I want it ready by his birthday."
For the optimist, he went to the palace gardener. "When he wakes up on the morning of his birthday, I want him to see, at the foot of his bed, a huge pile of manure."
So came the birthday. With great anticipation, he went to see his pessimistic son. He found him sitting glumly on his bed, holding a magnificent watch.
"How do you like your gift?" asked the king.
"It's alright," said the pessimist. "But it's really rather gaudy. And even if it wasn't, it's the sort of thing that will probably get stolen, or I might lose it. It might also break..."
The King had heard enough and went off to his son the optimist, whom he had found dancing with joy. When his father entered the room, the son ran up and hugged him.
"Oh, thank you, father, thank you!
It's just what I wanted!"
Perplexed, the father asked the son what he was thanking him for.
"Why, Father -- for the horse!
- This is an excerpt from the book "The Begger King and the Secret of Happiness"
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