Happiness Compared to Few Other Things
I was recently reminded of a conversation I had with a few of my friends, they were talking about how a boy band had saved many of its fans from depression and suicidal thoughts. Yes, quite surprising to be honest. But it kind of makes some sense. It gave them something to love, and something to look up to.They don’t care whether they get the love back or not. These people become an inspiration to them. THEY BECOME THEIR IDOLS.
But in other senses this is quite disappointing to be honest. That so many people lean on such motives to find their reason to be happy. For them to reach out so far to find happiness, I can’t help but wonder why they couldn’t find it with people around them. After some thought, I think it is because we have started to name materialistic things as sources of happiness. Everyone is so focused on achieving success, climbing status ladders.
Especially students, constantly asked to outperform themselves. Education was meant to be a learning process, but today it is a competition to see who is the best. This has caused many students to lose their childhood to textbooks and reference books.
The thing that is most concerning is the idea of money and success bringing joy to one’s life, because 1) it is hard to get, 2)it is easy to lose,3) one that possesses it is possessive about it. This is truly a recipe for disaster, it leaves the person hard to accept failure and lose. With these things in his comfortable reach a man grows so used to it that once parted he also parts with his basic senses and goes paranoia. Money is one of the things that can definitely never bring happiness, this is just because a man is never satisfied with how much he has of it. For example, a student was asked, “How much money exactly do you need to have to be happy with your life?” He started by naming an amount then increased it slightly and then again and again. So, if we can’t even come up with the ideal bank balance of happiness then how can we be happy? When a person knows there is more to have he becomes busy in trying to have it.
But on the contradicting side, when the student was asked to name a person that made him happy. He immediately replied with a name, even after being asked to reconsider his answer quite a few times, he left with his answer unchanged.
So at this point in time we have to realise that tomorrow we will grieve more on a loved one’s death than the loss of our entire fortune. Mostly because those people were our true fortune. Think of money as a big round cake, if you share it with everyone you are not only being kind and compassionate, but also keeping yourself healthy. But if you indulge in it alone, you become greedy and it destroys your health. Simple enough.
