Happiness (Poll)

[stonemaybe]

Heard these lyrics in a song. I count myself very lucky, I'm extremely happy being me!

[Avatar]

I'm pretty happy just being. The only meaning is what you create yourself, and I've got a low contentment threshold.

--A

[Fist and Faith]

You need a Both option. I'm always searching for meaning, and it - the searching - is what makes me happy.
From Jung:

The meaning and purpose of a problem seem to lie not in its solution but in our working at it incessantly.

Chris from Northern Exposure:

"I've been here now for some days, groping my way along, trying to realize my vision here. I started concentrating so hard on my vision that I lost sight. I've come to find out that it's not the vision, it's not the vision at all. It's the groping. It's the groping, it's the yearning, it's the moving forward. I was so fixated on that flying cow that when Ed told me Monty Python already painted that picture, I thought I was through. I had to let go of that cow so I could see all the other possibilities. Anyway, I want to thank Maurice for helping me to let go of that cow. Thank you Maurice for playing Apollo to my Dionysus in art's Cartesian dialectic. And thanks to you, Ed, cause the truth shall set us free! And Maggie, thank you for sharing in the destruction of your house so that today we could have something to fling. I think Kierkegaard said it oh so well, 'The self is only that which it's in the process of becoming.' Art? Same thing. James Joyce had something to say about it too. 'Welcome, Oh Life! I go to encounter for the millionth time the reality of experience, and to forge in the smythe of my soul the uncreated conscious of my race.' We're here today to fling something that bubbled up from the collective unconsciousness of our community. Ed, you about ready? The thing I learned folks, this is absolutely key: It's not the thing you fling. It's the fling itself. Let's fling something, Cicely!"

From Star Trek: TNG:

Data: <I>What is the definition of life?</I>

Crusher: <I>That is a BIG question. Why do you ask?</I>

Data: <I>I am searching for a definition that will allow me to test an hypotheses.</I>

Crusher: <I>Well, the broadest scientific definition might be that life is what enables plants and animals to consume food, derive energy from it, grow, adapt themselves to their surrounding, and reproduce.</I>

Data: <I>And you suggest that anything that exhibits these characteristics is considered alive.</I>

Crusher: <I>In general, yes.</I>

Data: <I>What about fire?</I>

Crusher: <I>Fire?</I>

Data: <I>Yes. It consumes fuel to produce energy. It grows. It creates offspring. By your definition, is it alive?</I>

Crusher: <I>Fire is a chemical reaction. You could use the same argument for growing crystals. But, obviously, we don't consider them alive.</I>

Data: <I>And what about me? I do not grow. I do not reprodue. Yet I am considered to be alive.</I>

Crusher: <I>That's true. But you are unique.</I>

Data: <I>Hm. I wonder if that is so.</I>

Crusher: <I>Data, if I may ask, what exactly are you getting at?</I>

Data: <I>I am curious as to what transpired between the moment when I was nothing more than an assemblage of parts in Dr. Sung's laboratory and the next moment, when I became alive. What is it that endowed me with life?</I>

Crusher: <I>I remember Wesley asking me a similar question when he was little. And I tried desperately to give him an answer. But everything I said sounded inadequate. Then I realized that scientists and philosophers have been grappling with that question for centuries without coming to any conclusion.</I>

Data: <I>Are you saying the question cannot be answered?</I>

Crusher: <I>No. I think I'm saying that we struggle all our lives to answer it. That it's the struggle that is important. That's what helps us to define our place in the universe.</I>

Finding and thinking about that kind of stuff is me just being.

[Loredoctor]

I search for meaning - it's the only thing that brings me happiness. I don't believe in happiness in just being. That's too static for me.

[Damelon]

I agree with Descartes. I think therefore I am. I'm fine with that.

[Menolly]

You need a Both option. I'm always searching for meaning, and it - the searching - is what makes me happy.

*nod*

I'm with Fist.

I'm generally "happy" all the time.

Well...not "happy." But...satisfied with whom I am. Lack of tact and good judgement and all.

But that includes searching for further meaning.

It's not the destination that makes one happy. It's the journey to said destination.

[sgt.null]

i am happy being.

[Queeaqueg]

I search for meaning and I won't be happy till I find it.

[matrixman]

I guess it doesn't get more obvious than my title.

Happiness? I remember this funny, off-handed remark from somewhere: "Sad is happy for deep people." That's not necessarily true, of course, and it was meant as a joke, but I like it all the same.

[Fist and Faith]

That's a good one!!

And it seems to me our titles are translations of each others'.

[Loredoctor]

"The thirst after happiness is never extinguished in the heart of man"
- Jacques Rousseau

[Fist and Faith]

Here's some quotes about happiness:
geocities.com/happinessisournaturalstate/

[emotional leper]

I have been happy very, very rarely in my adult life. I remember the last time I was happy -- about two months of my life, in July/August '06.

The closest I ever get to happy usually is 'amused or 'bemused.'

I hope to one day work up to 'cemused.'

[Phantasm]

I'm happy just being. Mostly being around for my wife and kids.

If it wasn't for them, I might not even be happy being.

[Holsety]

I have been happy very, very rarely in my adult life. I remember the last time I was happy -- about two months of my life, in July/August '06.

The closest I ever get to happy usually is 'amused or 'bemused.'

I hope to one day work up to 'cemused.'

But this word, this word you use...it cemuses me

I feel pretty happy, usually most of the things I get really unhappy about are fairly distant, and I say "wow, good that I have the luxury to sit here and get unhappy about them."

The one thing that drags me down is when, for one reason or another, I think about people who I knew for a while and will probably never see again: most HS friends, relatives both physically and genetically distant, and others. Just thinking about the ties which you've made falling to pieces and whatnot. And emails and the like don't do that much for me; instead of being forumlike, where it's sorta free discussion, you're usually talking to them (if you are) because it's their birthday or something.

[emotional leper]

I spend a good deal of every day dwelling on the people I've known, loved, lost, and hurt.

[Fist and Faith]

Every lad needs a hobby, eh?

Now cut it out!

[emotional leper]

Every lad needs a hobby, eh?

Now cut it out!

I might be sick of guilt, but if I forget the things I've done...

Hold on... *Flips through 'The Wounded Land.'*

Gimme a minute.

[High Lord Tolkien]

Life often interferes with my being happy.

Sorry, that's as deep as I get.

I have been an insulin dependent diabetic for 22 years.
Technically I should have died a horrible death before I was 17.
So every minute of every day is a bonus.
Any time I think otherwise is pure selfishness to me.
(*especially* when life sucks!)
So in a weird way, no matter what, I'm happy.

(but I'm still young. )

[Fist and Faith]

I might be sick of guilt, but if I forget the things I've done...

Hold on... *Flips through 'The Wounded Land.'*

Gimme a minute.

There's a difference between forgetting bad things you've done and not dwelling on them. Thinking that past mistakes are supposed to prevent happiness more than very, very rarely is wrong thinking. Learn from past mistakes; use them to measure current and future behavior; and, as the man said, move the **** on.