The Pursuit of Happyness.

Happiness. We all look for it. Whether it's through financial stability, friends, hobbies, a lot of us are on what seems to be the ultimate goal in our life. Happiness.
What defines happiness?
Why does it seem like such an important thing to be happy?
Do you have to be selfish in order to obtain happiness?
Is happiness only achieved at "the end"?
How do we create or find happiness in our lives?

This question has been running through my mind for a very long time, and like many controversial topics, this is one that is completely subjective to the individual. However, I myself have managed to narrow down my own parameters of what it means to be happy. And it all began to make sense when I came to this stunning conclusion this morning:

The pursuit of happiness is the source of all unhappiness.

We all look to see where the sense is in life - we all try to find some common ground. The truth is, the more we look to see where we can trust, we get hurt. Life's not fair, but neither is life unfair. Life is just the way it is. We live, we love. We're all just children standing in a white space. Nothing.
It seems that the best we can do is lie to each other, hold hands, and say that everything is going to be just fine. But we don't know that. What do we know, come to think of it?

What we do know, is that once in a while, there comes along a moment that feels a little different. It makes us want to cry, scream, make love until you pass out for the next twelve hours. It's what moves us to want to become something when we grow up, to represent a moment or a motivation that we all have in our lives. This term, this feeling of contentment - well, we call this happiness. That one moment where everything falls into place and feels just right, the way it's supposed to be.

But how do we go from feeling lost to feeling completely happy with ourselves? In some cases, I can agree that this is hard. For one thing, happiness seems very highly dependent on the situation that you are in. I'm sure that people who were deported to a concentration camp during the second world war were unhappy mainly because of circumstances that were beyond their grasp. But on the flip side as well,-when you try to control everything because things are within your grasp, are you happy? In the end, is the pursuit of your own individual happiness better than trying to help others become happy? It's your life, yes. But how important is it, really? And in the end, when we die, do we understand this? Personally, I think that since human faith and understanding is based completely upon human intellect, we will never know the answer.So now - what do you think? What does happiness mean to you? Does pursuing that which you believe in, really make you happier by the end of it all? Well here's my answer:

HAPPINESS DOESN'T EXIST.

So here we have two thoughts that completely counteract with the American definition of happiness - the thought that the pursuit of happiness is the source of all unhappiness, and that happiness in itself doesn't exist. Relax. I'll explain.

If we, as human beings, should spend less time worrying about why we aren't happy; and instead focused on coping with the situation at hand; our society would work far more efficiently. Too much effort is spent in our heads, wondering, worrying. Trying to figure things out so they work for us. None of us can drive the car of life, so why the hell should I give you the keys? The point is, we don't know. So relax. Enjoy what you have, and what you don't. Celebrate the happy moments, grow from the sad ones. The sad ones in the end shape us to become the person that we are today.
I argue with the very notion of happiness' existence, and instead, replace it with other words. Contentment, passion, love. Happiness in itself doesn't exist. That's just some ridiculous notion we as people have developed over the years. In our strive for perfection, we ended up going three steps backwards. We look to pour our trust in something that will never happen. So begin to trust the imperfections as well, love them. It's our sadness that shapes who we are, it's our trust in the good in all that makes us human. Pain simply shows that we love - and love; well, that's really what it's all about.