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Happiness is not like depression. Happiness is a slip of paper, a manila lifeboat that

floats on a planet made of everything else. It is golden, it is admired with the avaricious

eyes of the superficial; it is as abundant yet inaccessible as clean water. In modern

world, there is as little a difference as ever between happiness and pleasure. Happiness

seems to be a cheap purchase or an instant gratification; it is ephemeral and is a brief

visitor. It brings a light, a joy for a moment, but it always parts. It never lasts. Happiness

is truly undefined, for it is not a pure emotion. As much as language has expressed, all

of its synonyms strike the same impression and express the same expression- a balance

between satisfaction, pleasure, and many other ingredients no person can express.

Happiness to some is power, to others it is a lifestyle of fame and excess, to yet others it

is a lifestyle of privacy and living on minimums. What makes you happy? What do you

like? What do you want? What do you wish? All the questions target wants, desires. Is

happiness what you get when your wants fulfilled? Is happiness a personal thing that

can only be received but not recycled to others?

Happiness in our world is often looked upon as a selfish emotion. Those who acquire itbecome objects of despise to those that do not. After all, much of happiness is in fact

pleasure, pleasure that often has origins that are socially unholy. Exploiting people for

benefit, getting people to do what you want, abusing them to do for you- all of those are

socially unholy methods of attaining pleasure. Therefore it could be a conclusion that

one should never enjoy private happiness without sharing it with others; it is morally

abhorrent. But how does one go about receiving happiness and spreading it to others?

Charity, donation, but there will always be those who are unhappy. And you cannot give

happiness without yourself being morally questionable. Giving implies the donation of

things- which creates materialism, which makes for people who want more and more

from others. Happiness is like food in that you are obliged to share it, but do not get back

from those that you share with without creating the stunting factors of friction and

obligation. Seeing other people be happy is thought to be patronizing, and even just

another way of being selfish- after all, youre fulfilling your own desires to see others

happy; youd be hurt if they werent.

Happiness in idea form is infinitely shareable. Happiness in an idea could be giving

someone a mental incentive- the thought that one loves someone else, that one has a

better place to look forward to, the notion that someone will do things for the good of

mankind, that justice will be found; the notion that there is a hero; the final justification

that everything will be okay; it is these bouts of joy that are even cheaper than materialhappiness. They are like nuzzles in a way, fulfilling a desire of individuals, often for the

benefit of another manipulative individual or an entire group. However, these ideas that

create a sort of cherubic and much-wanted innocence evolve into something that is in

fact a dangerous thing: ignorance. And when you have ignorance, you have people that

have been fermented to the point of exploitation. Once theyve been numbed and

pacified into believing theyre in the best place possible, it is nothing short of a calamity

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of order for those who find that theres more to life than what they are living in, that there

are more shades of light then that which their eyes have been shielded from.

Overwhelmingly, happiness seems to be escape from what is not happiness. Escapism

is the most complex type of happiness- it is neither a solution nor a gratification; in fact it

is a mask. And when you mask what is bad, happiness can last forever. Long-lasting

happiness is a natural paradox; a sign that escapism is in fact that something even more

miserable, even more unstable, even more fragile- than before. It is a further relative

from happiness than materialism; it is a truly devilish and terrifying thing entailing

ignorance and misconception and exploitation. What is exceptional is that problems are

not recognized or understood at all and simply covered up. You cant hear curdled

screams when they are muted. Escapism creates a world filled with people who are all

standing in the middle of a desert valley, isolated to the core, in absolute silence. Over

time or maybe never at all, theyll notice the valley has sunken them into a hole in which

they are permanently separated from the world around them. At first, the silence and

stability is wonderful, the peace and apparent bliss is admirable. To others, it is a signthat something is absolutely and entirely wrong with what is going on. Or it could be a

situation where an individual continues to live separate from their issues until their efforts

to separate themselves and remain content end up separating them from what truly

matters in the world. Some that have dug themselves into this distinct type of hole may

find that they simply never come out but only belong less and less to the real world

where their problems still lay at the doorstep and find themselves entranced in another

reality where they can find a black hole of bliss.

Perhaps the most peculiar idiosyncrasy of happiness is that it forces personal growth up

and up, and eventually to a roof. Once it is acquired in either small or large quantities, it

assumes an individuals most basic needs have been fulfilled and that they are

becoming proficient in satisfying wants. Once one becomes a satisfied and individual

and has sipped the wine of luxury, they have at their fingertips a happiness-consuming

ability: the ability to reflect and improve their own character. This also comes with a

heightened sense of security; if an individual feels threatened he or she will of course

never take the time to find rationality in what they are doing. But, once they do the

individual will discover many things about himself. Most key is the pondering of purpose-

a trial of thoughts in which they emerge confused as to what comes next with their

recently gained elation. Eventually elation fades into cheerfulness before settling at

content. The purpose question is one that begs the question of why it is important to behappy, especially if the happiness requires a large amount of sacrifice or restraint on the

individual level. After all, there is only a certain amount of sacrifice an individual can

make before happiness is really quite dull. While pondering happiness and ones current

state an individual may find that happiness is the best thing you can attain, for once you

try to spread it to others you find that it is an unappeasable, draining task and that it is

better to enjoy it in private. And of course the resulting moral conflict even further

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questions the integrity of being happy. If you are surrounded by others that are

miserable, what is the point of being the odd one out? If conformity guides the individual,

this is a conflict that is impossible to avoid. Overall, however- one someone is happy,

then what happens? Instinctually, youd want to remain happy. But eventually this whole

gilded happiness wears out into that same form of guilty content. Or it could simply

stop at the purpose of life; assuming that the purpose of life is to be and stay happy.

Youre happy. Youre satisfied, theres not a thing you could improve. Since there is a

gap where purpose should be, it is only natural that one desires the sort of drive that is

normally attained by depression, the drive to do better and constantly have something

brighter to look forward to. This drive becomes a desire for danger, an appetite for a lack

of order; all of course in safety of knowing that you will emerge just as pleased as

before, which is in itself a logical fallacy. And then of course, there is the desire for the

little kicks to never end- which means basic needs that distract individuals begin to

weigh down on them like rainclouds. However, there is after a certain amount of

breathtaking adventure and random thrills a chilling realization that there truly is nothingmore to be found in safe stimulation. To some, it appears like the end of a book; the

falling action was the descent to that form of content, and the conclusion is imminent.

Conclusion, of course, implies death. But what if youre far from death? The desire to

have life be more and more exciting becomes semi-suicidal greed that urges people to

make their lives crazier and crazier until they are forced into a stage where they have an

unquenchable desire for something that is not safe or sane by any means; in other

words, something that will likely kill you.

It is the cycle of life that these dangers eventually become so unsafe that they take

people back to a point where they are no longer able to be happy due to some exposure

that has made them aware of just how terrible their surroundings are, and the guilt

eventually drives them into doing things that are absolutely stupid for their own bliss, but

positively brilliant for that of everyone else.

The solution in that case would be to make the urge for danger and the lust for greater

emotion into something that is just as powerful as depression but just as desirable as

ecstasy. If happiness can be applied as "peace of mind", then in this case, the motive

would drive from the heart as well, as in creating a peace of heart, not simply a peace

of mind. When the heart is at peace, you may observe, it is equal to feeling like a hero or

saint. And there is, of course, nowhere to go after achieving that feeling. There is, unlike"peace of mind", no remainder or forgotten part, no aspiration to do more and more as

there is in mental happiness. You may say, why is it impossible to achieve that in our

current world? As mentioned before, that feeling is impossible within our world because

the methods of achieving it are all impossibilities within themselves. Think of donations,

people who sacrifice their basic happiness to do charitable things for the world- they put

themselves not only at risk, but they surround themselves with deplorable ideas and

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conditions that can only destroy their happiness. And in fact, as a side note, you find that

their very urge to do these wild things is to perpetuate their own happiness! A logical

fallacy, a paragon of the little "kicks" one gets once one has attained basic personal

satisfaction and struck by an unhappy thought or idea. Remember, people get happy,

and then feel bad about it. So they expend some of that unhappiness being amused by

danger or thrill. Eventually, the thrill has sucked the initial happy away, leaving behind a

person just as depressed as before. Remember that this is the natural cycle of

happiness. But, pardon my rambling, you asked of what the question of purpose would

become? The question of purpose or need to protect ones happiness no longer exists

when one feels he or she has done everything he or she can do