WHAT
REALLY IS THE SOURCE OF HAPPINESS
Trying to rationalise what is the
ultimate source of happiness could be an exercise in the pursuit of the mystic.
Happiness itself stem from several factors that are intricately linked to life
itself. These factors though obvious to all, could be said to play a huge role
in what actually constitute happiness. This is not to say that these factors
are the only utopia of what actually constitute happiness.
When considered against the
backdrop of the absence of these factors, it is easy to see why they are
intricately linked to what really constitute happiness. It goes without saying
that when these factors are not available, what could have taken a form of
merry, becomes dancing in a potter's grim.
These factors are a means to an
end, and not the end that makes for happiness.
Already, these factors which are
widely known includes good health, money, a steady job, shelter, a sound
family, a catchments of friends that keep in touch, a society that embrace
truth and justice, the presence of social amenities and others that are linked
to the above. Although these factors could vary according to individual and societal choices.
Looking at these factors, the wisdom of
not immediately currying for one as the ultimate to the exclusion of the other
becomes clear when you beam some search light on it.
For instance, the bible clarifies the
importance of money when it says, money answers all things. This is absolutely
true. But, you might ask, does having money constitute ultimate happiness?
There are few who aren't wealthy but they are always happy. While others whose very
name is a by-product of wealth, yet they are never happy. Money though can
answer all things; however it’s not without exceptions. A politician can spend
billions to bribe his way to electoral victory, but when the will of the people
stands, the money spent which should have answered the call for electoral
victory, ends up in the pocket of a few, while the other candidate is declared
the winner. The politician that has spent billions cannot be happy for obvious
reasons.
Then the issue of health comes into
it. Medical tourism constitutes the highest source of capital flight in Nigeria. It runs
into billions of dollars yearly. And while few who had funds raised for them to
embark on such trips are there, there are the other few who are really that
wealthy that they can meet the financial demands of such trips.
It is such
persons that are the focus here. They have the money aplenty, but due to ill
health, the ultimate happiness is absent. In this sense, money cannot answer
such a question especially when it’s an illness that is terminal.
Do not get me wrong, I am not
debasing the importance of having money, the truth is without it, you are always in a
state of ever roving in intentions, but never riding in actions.
Instances abound in the more comfortable
climes of the Western world, where the social infrastructure and institutions
are workable to protect truth and justice, which is in contrast to the
developing world.
Yet you still see people that are supposedly comfortable in
life falling into depression and committing suicide, while some have died of
overdose from taking anti-depressant drugs.
Whereas, in the developing world
like our clime, you still see people putting up a brave face in the wake of
copious adversity, little of which have been encountered by many in the Western
world.
Although, psychiatrist and
therapist, are always quick to point out that depression does not know status,
and it has led many to develop suicidal thoughts. While it’s a big thing in the
West, it is seldom seen as an ailment here, yet it is becoming prevalent as societal
dynamics changes especially with trauma occasioned by the sudden dead of a
loved one in an attack by insurgents and other heart wrenching circumstances.
Yet, again it makes the
availability of money to pale into shadow when depression attacks. Ask
yourself, why would a person so wealthy that he or she can afford most things on
earth contemplate suicide as the only way to rid themselves of a problem?
Such feeling of hopelessness that push them to such tragic end, shows why even the
bible's acclaim that money answers all things is not always on solid ground.
Then, when you turn the page on
someone who does not have these factors that make life what it is, a homeless
person who doesn't know when the next meal would come, and people who do not
have the minutest of reason to keep on going in life. Yet they see hope in the
face of hopelessness.
Then there are others who have been ill for as long as
they can remember, bed ridden, not able to walk, others in a wheel chair, and
other variables of ill health, yet they still keep on going and living life one
day at a time.
What make the persons in this
category to see hope and not hopelessness? When all around them is the very
antithesis of hope? When compared to those whose environment and all around
them emits the ambience of hope, and what have you, yet they see
hopelessness.
You may want to ask yourself what
is the difference between these categories of persons? If you have read this
far, you could glean the angle I am coming from.
The answer lies in what ultimately
constitute happiness, a question asked in the opening paragraph.
It is no other than your personal
choice. You choose to be happy no matter the upheaval.
The present or lack of
the factors that constitute happiness can and cannot impart on happiness
depending on the individual.
In hindsight, the former categories
of persons made a choice to see hopelessness. Why the latter also made a choice
to see hope.
You make a choice to be happy and
joyful in life. In perspective, the ultimate source of happiness is simply a
choice to be a happy.
