Happiness -- let's dig a little deeper

OK, so the next step is to look at what makes people happy -- or at least content. I believe there are several levels here -- the most basic and animal needs are through pleasing our senses -- food, sex, warmth and comfort, etc. Is that really creating happiness though? A good meal versus a bad meal -- given a choice between donuts and bran cereal, I think most people are leaning to the former. But why? Is that really providing happiness? I don't think so -- food provides the basic fuel to survive; I wonder at which point the human race was fooled into believing that a sugar, fat and salt filled diet with explosions of taste was necessary and in fact delivered pleasure. Now, I say all this as a morbidly obese man [there's two words you never want to see together -- in fact, I don't think I want 'morbid' in any sentence describing me]. Part of what I grapple with is that battle with food -- I think as I get older, it becomes so much more apparent that we have transformed into a society dependent upon enormous corporations which depend on long lasting food delivered in a cost effective manner. Considering the perishable nature of food, this means changing the food itself to survive longer. Want to get scared one day? Read the ingredients list on just about any food you have -- unless you have a degree in chemistry, you will find ingredients you cannot identify. Yet that's what you're eating -- still happy? [as an aside, I'm still trying to figure out what Munchos really are...]



So food is not really a means to happiness -- it's a means to sustenance. However, in our consumer-driven culture where the almighty dollar is God [it says it right on the currency, don't blame me], food has become a presumed means to happiness; the result of which is the fattest society in modern history [myself included]. I think the concept of food and happiness covers much of the other creature comforts we surround ourselves with: home, car, clothes, etc. A mobile home or cabin is certainly more than enough to survive -- essentially, you merely need a shelter to keep you warm [or cool] and protect you from the elements. The need for a McMansion with all of the amenities is again driven more by good marketing and a consumer culture than actual need or happiness. The same obviously holds true with clothes -- I'm still struggling with the concept of $200 jeans. Cars are the worst of it -- effectively, we need the ability to travel from point A to point B. I wonder if the Eisenhower administration could see the lasting effects of their Interstate highway system. Although creating jobs at the time for post-war veterans and an infrastructure that allowed us to expand our local horizons, the expense has been staggering. Think of all of the money time and effort created due to suburban sprawl, continued expansion, etc., driving up our insatiable need for internal combustion vehicles run by petroleum where we consume far more than we have. The money spent, lives lost, communities destroyed, urban decay created -- be interesting to look at what the net trade-off is.



So, most of what we take as creature comforts for happiness are really basics that have been dressed up by effective marketing to get us to spend more for less -- and through that transaction to believe that we are happier. I don't think so -- again, we've merely created a vehicle to drive more consumption and keep the engine called capitalism going regardless of the human cost. So we can't buy happiness -- well, wait, what am I working for? This is where it starts to get interesting. As in my last post, I'm trapped in a job paying for items that upon introspection offer no net happiness. So what does provide happiness -- real happiness? I believe we will have to delve more into the intellectual, emotional, and spiritual realms -- so far capitalism is providing the shadows of happiness.

I'll attack those three realms on my next post -- onward and upward...

And so it begins.....

Ahh, a place for discourse on the meanderings of the day and the meaning of life....

Today's thoughts are on work -- do the ends really justify the means? It continues to amaze me how many people, including myself, are so miserable with what they do as an occupation. What I struggle with more is the inability to change or move forward with something more desirable. The older I get, the more I realize how inconsequential 'things' are in life. Take an inventory of your possessions, but with the following caveat: place a star on those possessions that bring you happiness. Not 100% of the inventory, is it? Now take those items you were bold enough to give a star, and ask yourself why they make you happy. Don't be shocked when more than half of the items fall into the category of 'life avoidance' [yes, that begins with your TV, video games, etc.]. So we slave away at work to pay for things that try to make us forget how much our life sucks? Hamsters on wheels everywhere are laughing, I am sure....

So does this mean we should all up and quit? Or, like me, do you have people other than yourself who depend on you and that income you hate to produce? And what are the implications there? I spend an enormous amount of time fighting a latent anger being trapped and having to provide for a family that does not recognize this 'sacrifice' I am making for them. Is that fair? Of course not -- much like the petulant teen crying 'I didn't ask to be born', my family certainly isn't putting a gun to my head and sending me to work [although somedays, I'd swear I felt a knife at my back...].

What's my point? I think I'm making a great effort and finding the excuses each and every one of us makes to drive ourselves crazy at jobs we do not enjoy. It creates a vicious cycle -- it is that cycle that I am trying to find ways to break. First and foremost, it goes back to the concept of happiness and satisfaction -- what actually works for people? I'm on a search to find truly happy people -- I need to know what makes them tick. And that's excluding the medicated, infirm, etc. -- ignorance may be bliss but I prefer not to seek a lobotomy as the path to happiness. In the next couple of posts, I'm going to try and dig deeper into that concept of happiness -- at the root of it, I believe that most people are too afraid to actually step out and do what makes themselves truly happy [including myself]. My hope is to figure out why and break the cycle. More to follow -- who knows where this may go....