On Happiness

Today, someone asked me about when I feel happy in life. I didn't know what to answer at first. It's not a question I usually ask myself.

For her, it was moments of intimacy, with a romantic partner, friends, family, etc. That's a pretty good answer, but it's not true for me.

In the end, all I could come up with as an answer were moments of 'aesthetic' beauty, both natural and created. For example, I really love cycling, especially when I am cycling somewhere unknown. I love to discover random pieces of natural beauty. I also love walking and hiking for similar reasons. I equally love 'social' modes of aesthetic beauty, both in the form of art and also in the form of human stories - I love listening to people talk about their lives. So, in the end, most of my 'happiness' comes in moments of relative passivity - listening to people talk, listening to music, watching movies, observing landscapes. She said that, for her, the problem with travelling somewhere, even somewhere beautiful, is always that you remember people you left behind and miss them. I never feel that way.

Thinking more about it now, I guess the happiness I feel in aesthetic beauty is more linked to the sense of 'discovery' than the specific aesthetic qualities. So, 'new' things make me happy. Hmm, that's possibly a symptom of growing up in a consumerist society (as a kid I really loved Christmas, the expectation of receiving something new and shiny). But, I hope it's also a sign of a deeper human need for novelty and creativity. Discovery is a wonderful thing, and it can be endless.

In the end, though, my initial response to the question, which was the absence of a response, reflects my true opinion on happiness. It's really not something worth thinking too much about or paying too much attention to. I feel it's something that comes and goes quickly. We have to be thankful when it's there, but also patient when it is not.

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