Happiness, Covetousness, Hope and Other Delights
[thoughts of a ~burning woman~ Sha'Tara]
"O, how bitter a thing it is to look into happiness through another man's eyes!"
(As you like it - Shakespeare)
What is happiness? How would "the average Joe" describe such a state of beingness? Having never known that happiness is not a feeling but a state of mental and physical balance, the answer would be as varied as Joe has moods. It would ultimately be a meaningless answer.
I would say, after a few years of observation; of "eavesdropping" on conversations, that for most, happiness is what someone else is experiencing or it's something that's about to happen. It's something I will buy as soon as I fix my credit rating. It's something I will have in bed as soon as I can seduce that other to share my sexual intoxication. It's something I'll have when I get married, have kids, when the kids leave home, when I retire, if that damn weather ever changes, when I win the lottery, when I get my new boat.
Indeed, a meaningless exercise in wishful thinking.
Have I ever met a truly happy person? I've smiled at babies in carriages and shopping carts and seen happiness, however short-lived. I've interacted with mentally challenged individuals and seen happiness through their smiling eyes. I wish I could say I've met professionals and working people who were truly happy, but I cannot.
Funny thing about happiness: you will find it in those who are totally self-empowered and self-motivated. Those who take complete responsibility for every aspect of their lives. Those who no longer blame... and therefore no longer hope. Conversely, you will also find happiness in those who are totally dependent on others and accept their condition without question; who live within a sort of dream state that things are good, no matter what, and can only continue to be good - no matter what. Where the choice to create change is non-existent.
The problem with happiness when it comes to "normal" people is, it cannot exist alongside of fear: fear of not getting, fear of not having and fear of losing. Another way of putting it is, happiness cannot exist where there is any kind of attachment. Momentary pleasures, perhaps, but not happiness. Those who seek happiness through attachments (or through control of situations and events) will forever be looking for it through the window of covetousness.
And here's another word for covetousness: hope. So much of "hope" I find is nothing more than covetousness' poor cousin. I "hope" I win that lottery this weekend. I "hope" I get that new job, I hope he asks me to marry him. Such "hope" describes a mindset that says someone, the world, God, luck, a lover, whatever, owes it to me to make me happy. I don't have to work for it; I don't have to prove I'm capable, I bought a ticket... I signed my name on the list... I slept with him... now I deserve it.
And then? As Shakespeare says, when the other wins, or gets the coveted supervisory job, or he goes after another, you see happiness only through their eyes. A sad thing. Now come the recriminations; the gossip, the lies, the blame, the conspiracies. The winner is forgotten. The new supervisor is despised. The ex-boyfriend and his new girlfriend are hated with passion. And it starts all over again with the next cartoon.
Earthian life wobbling forth in hope of something, anything, except what it started out to be about.
As always in your works, you have shown insight and intelligence.
Terry
But as we all know happiness is a state of mind
In life has its ups and downs!
A very interesting question enjoyed reading
Sha'Tar article
Outstanding article
Love Peace and hugssss....Morning star
Georg
I think the downside of happiness is that we won't allways be happy, yet the upside of sadness is that we won't allways be sad. I think hope can be covetous, yet it can also serve a purpose in the expanded mind to channel positive energy to accomplish good. I think
what Sheakespeare was trying to accomplish through his works was getting the message across that most of the problems in the equation of everyday life can be solved by the expansion of the mind,but in order to solve all the problems of Mankind the heart and the soul must be expanded also, A somewhat harder task. Excellent write!
Take Care, Pierre
Thank You Regis...
John
Fine writing..very informative.
Ron
It touches everyone at one point of their life or another but often is mislabeled.
Covetousness is, unfortunately, an all too-human emotion in that instead of being grateful for what another has, we resent that THEY have/got it instead of us. That feeling, in most cases, is also (thankfully) fleeting.
Hope is sustainable ... it means being positive that things will improve, not just change. However, it can bring about action as well. If you HOPE someone doesn't starve, you may take them a food basket, etc.
All of these things depend upon the individual and how THEY look at life: all can be positive, negative or mean absolutely nothing.
Personally, I think this is introspective ... makes us dwell on ourselves, our purpose, goals, outlooks.
Thanks!
Love,
Sandy
Happy??
:)Yes!!
Love TinkaSWEETS $*!*$