Happiness, like all emotions is an extremely complex idea; it
can mean different things to different people. In Joshua Wolf Shenk`s article “What
Makes Us Happy?” Shenk poses the
question “is there a formula for happiness?” Shenk attempts to answer this
question as he observed two hundred and sixty-eight men from Harvard University
over the course of seventy-two years, and during that time period he comes to
the conclusion that happiness isn’t exactly linear. There are many factors that
contribute to our levels of happiness, our experiences being one of them. When
Shenk`s discusses case No.141 he tells us about how the patient was curing his
college years; happy, successful, and in possession of all of the qualities of
a “superior personality”. However, after his parents got a divorce his life
went progressively down-hill; he began smoking, drinking, began dating a woman
who was considered psychotic. Case No.141, was a perfectly happy person until
an unhappy event took place in his life, then he completely changed. The
happiness in your life absolutely has a direct correlation with the experience
that take place. Shenk also say that everything we do is a defense mechanism to
keep ourselves from getting hurt, to keep ourselves as happy as possible. Though
defenses are important relationships also play a powerful role in our state of
happiness. The love we get from the relationships we forge gives us a sense of
warmth and love. In “The Epistle of Paul
the Apostle to the Ephesians” by Rita Dove, she kind of builds on that specific
argument of Shenk`s as she dives deeper into the history and life of the
apostle Paul. Dove says that Paul`s life was shaped by his experiences and
emotions. More specifically his love for Christ; his relationship with Christ
provides him happiness on his road to redemption. Dove adds to Shenk`s argument
that love is the equivalent happiness. Just like Shenk, Dove doesn’t outright state
her opinion on happiness but she does clearly sway her argument toward “love is
happiness”. I agree with what both of the
authors say about happiness; it is very much dependent upon your experiences
and relationships. Anyone can be happy for a long period of time but it takes
positive events in your life continuously happening to stay that way. The relationships
in our lives also provide a sense of security which in turn allows us to build
a sense of consistent happiness. My opinion on happiness that it is a complex
emotion, but that if there is a chance at having it we should take it
Experiences shape our lives and perception of happiness, and we do have defense
mechanisms that we employ to protect ourselves and preserve our happiness.
The research from “What Makes Us Happy” by Joshua Wolf Shenk shows us that there isn’t a specific way to achieve happiness. Events in people’s lives played a major role in them being happy and how people handled different events varied. For example No. 141 was brought up in the ideal family with a father who he described as thoughtful, funny, and patient and a mother who he described as “artistic and civic-minded. He also played sports growing up and had a great sense of humor. When his parents divorced in his 30’s things began to go downhill for him. He began to smoke and drink and was said to be having a relationship with someone who was mentally unstable. He later died at an early age which is depressing because he had all the attributes that made an amazing person. This shows that everyone’s life can change at any moment and all it takes is one event to make that happen. It also shows that we aren’t really in control of our happiness and how complex happiness is and pursuing it is a waste of time because we can barely understand it to begin with.
ReplyDelete“The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Ephesians" by Rita Dove also talked about happiness and how events can affect a person’s life. Dove talks about how Paul’s relationship with Christ was able to give him happiness. Shenk and Paul both showed that events is what shapes peoples lives and everyone handles situations different ways. Another connection that I see between Shenks work and Paul’s is that we all need other people to be happy, whether it is our family or someone we can put faith in like Christ. This shows that our happiness isn’t simply “ours” or something we can achieve alone other people play an important role in being happy.
I agree with you. Happiness is definitely not linear. There is no certain set of methods or formulas that will lead us to happiness. The level of happiness we will achieve cannot be predetermined by things like social status, economic background, the kind of jobs we have, the activities we participate in, etc.. We all find happiness in our own way. We all have to forge our own paths that will lead us to happiness. We will come across obstacles along these paths, and the amount of happiness that we gain in our lives depends on the way we react to those obstacles. This was shown in Shenk's "What Makes Us Happy" article when Dr. Vaillant had to deal with the death of his father. He could have taken the usual route and let his father's death break him apart emotionally; but instead, he allowed it to inspire him to research the things that make us happy. Embarking on this journey led to Dr. Vaillant's happiness. I also agree with you on how love and relationships play a major role in the pursuit of happiness. We all need people in our lives that support us and care about us. Knowing that we don't have someone to love and that there is no one out there that loves us can make finding happiness extremely difficult. In "The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Ephesians", Rita Dove was able to show how Paul's love for Christ changed him and made him happy. "Paul's account of his conversion is essentially the story of a seduction", she stated. "He has been entered by Christ in the Bridegroom and remade in the image of his Love."
ReplyDeleteI agree that the happiness that we feel does strictly have to do with the experiences we go through and their outcomes. With everything we go through the one thing we are always looking for is, will it make us happy, will this have a positive effect on our life’s. It’s programed in us to constantly seek out the positives in life and use “defense mechanisms to guard ourselves from anything but the good. On the other hand with this search of happiness, we run into the undesirable hurt, sadness, and anger. As Shenk states “Going forth into the breach of life can deepen meaning, but also deepen wounds.” I think in trying to find what make us happy that we forget that if life did not have the deep wound and down sides, that we wouldn’t exactly know what happiness was, because we would take it for granted if we always had happiness. Dove does have a more focused view on happiness, she states that love is ultimately happiness. I agree that the overall viewpoints of both readings is that same that experiences influence happiness and we don’t have a constant flow of it in our life’s, but that is something we all strive for. “Do I feel displaced in the serenity of this splendid retreat?’ states Dove, because sometimes we do forget in the down side of life that we are surrounded by happiness, but forget to look at the little things, the little experience’s that happen. In addition, when she sees that painting is all of a sudden takes her into a deep meaningful place where she realizes that all the experiences around us and that we make happen all amount to something and it’s an ongoing process of finding the happiness in each experience.
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