I am having such a grand time that I can hardly contain laughing, cheek-to-cheek grinning, blushing, and yawning at every opportunity. If I got a dollar each time something off that aforementioned list occurred, I think I could end world poverty (or at the very least cop some raw denyums). Wouldn’t that be something? To be paid for being happy? That leads in to “Nghiem’s Daily Musings on Subjects that are Deep.”

Happiness

What is happiness? This question is different from: What makes you happy, which is entirely subjective from person to person.. We can semantically and philosophically argue what constitutes happiness, but there is a certain amount of commonality in the way we use the word “happiness” in ordinary situations. This commonalityis exemplified in the following example and I’ll be talking about this specific brand of “happiness” throughout this entry. When you see a friend whom you haven’t seen in a while, you might exchange a few pieces of information about the state of your lives. After that, you might ask, “Are you happy?” And, your friend replies, “Yes, I am.” Then you say, “Good, that’s what counts.” This is the particular happiness I am talking about.

I believe this happiness is largely chemical and is quantifiable. It directly correlates with the rate of change in the quality of life. It is commonly assumed that happiness correlates with the absolute level of quality of life, but this is consistently contradicted by the visible unhappiness of highly successful people. From these contradictions, we wrongly infer that successful people are somehow lacking in some other areas of life. That is, we would like to believe, for instance, that successful people are superficial, and that they are suffering from their own superficiality. The reason why we ordinary people can be happier than they are, we further assume, is because we attend more to substance. This too is constantly contradicted by casual observations of people around us. There are many substantial, profound, intelligent people who are unhappy. It does not take a genius to realize that attending to substance is not the key to happiness.

As I said above, happiness is the first derivative in the graph of progress in life. If our ups and downs were to be graphed over time (y being quality of life, and x being time), a derivative taken at any point in time would directly correlates with the sense of happiness. To put it simply, it is the slope that counts, not the absolute position of the quality of life. In fact, the level of quality of life is quite irrelevant to our sense of happiness.

A prime example would be Michael Jackson. Currently his career is faltering. In terms of slope, it is negative and is sharp. The fact that he is still rich and famous is irrelevant to how unhappy he feels about his own predicament. You may argue that his financial security makes his fall an easier process than how he would feel if he were poor, but this sense of “security” is also a matter of derivative, not of absolute. What you consider “secure” isn’t necessarily the same as what Michael Jackson considers secure. Depending on what you are used to, the change in the degree of security is what we perceive to be “secure” or “insecure.” The US, for instance, is a much more secure country to live in than, say, Israel. From the perspective of the Israelis, what we consider “High” on our national terror alert is probably equivalent to “Low” on their scale. When we feel “secure” is not when we reach “Low” on this scale, but when the level goes down. If it goes from “High” down to “Elevated,” although it is technically still dangerous, we feel “secure” because some type of progress has been made.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, if an illegal alien who works at a deli for below minimum wage receives a Green card and, as a result, finds a job that pays a minimum wage, he would probably feel as happy as if Michael Jackson received a Grammy or me getting a pair of New Cures.

There are many aspects of our lives that contribute to the overall quality of our lives: physical health, intellectual abilities, financial state, fame, reputation, talent, personal life, and so on. Many of these aspects are closely intertwined, physical health being one of the most influential aspects. That’s why I think it is important to maintain a somewhat sustained, general health for each category. Well-balanced, that is. Too much of one may hinder another, so it’s best to maintain a symmetrical distribution of Happiness skill points.

If you believe that happiness is about the absolute level, you want to be at the top as quickly as possible so that you can enjoy the rest of your life in bliss. This does not always work, though, because the quicker you expect to attain happiness, the more uncontrollable and unpredictable it may be. Life will be rife with moments of intense joy, followed by periods of disappointment. Because of this misguided notion, you inadvertently make your own life more strenuous and quixotic. In the long run, you would be better off if you simply focused on improving your life one step at a time, by making sure that you make some sort of progress in your life every day, no matter how small that may be.

The past few days, I’ve be sharing my happiness with my friend, relishing the simple comforts of late-night delivery food, funny tv shows, slowdancing in the lounge, and sleep.

So if someone were to ask me, “Are you happy?” right now, I’d answer it simply…

“Hell yeah.”