Happy is not our natural state of being. In fact it isn’t a state of being at all. We always yearn for happiness, work on reaching a state of happiness, think of a thousand things that will bring us happiness, in short we are obsessed with happiness yet never ever stay in the state of happiness. If one were to scientifically measure the amount of time we stay in the state of happiness we’ll discover we’ve reached the limit of Newtonian physics and entered quantum mechanics. Like Schrödinger’s cat, the moment we think if we are happy we ind a cause to be unhappy. That just like matter, happiness is a also an illusion. It’s just a whim.
Sadness is. We are eternally sad as a race and race to find happiness in the next thing we do. Sadly the thing we are doing right now already lost its happiness quotient the moment we set upon doing it. We are programmed to be sad and programmed to keep trying not to be sad. This cycle goes on pretty much most of our conscious life.
If sadness is our natural state of being does it perhaps have any evolutionay advantage? One can be happy at points in time in planes of thoughts but sadness lawys lurks beneath it all. The unhappiness always lurks just beneath the surface, stewing in its own indignation at being temorarily obscured by a feeting spark of joy.
If happiness was the natural state of our minds why would we even attempt to do anything but sit around. We’d do absolutely nothing at all!! If the sight of food brings no more happiness than we are, we may even forget to eat. We seek happiness like we seek food, in fact we seek food more to make us happy now than to satiate our hunger. When a bowl of plain rice and potatoes would have suffice, we now seek a delicate salad of haute cuisine dressed in haute couture garnished with social crumbs with chilled wine and a hint of the narcissist in tow.
Yes, happiness is …that elusive entity that drives most human endeavor.
The pursuit of happiness is the predominant evolutionary and historic engine that runs our lives. What we perceive as our happiness of course determines how complex that pursuit can get. Happiness however remains forever the moving target, every step taken towards it moving it one step further..forever just beyond reach.
As the entire humankind marches onward in this pursuit, it does appear that unhappiness is the natural state of being.
Lets now stew in some sadness over it. Oh sweet sadness, We’s be extinct now without you.