Happiness

Is Happiness Needed To Live a Meaningful Life?

There is an old saying that is flung around all of time that states “money can’t buy happiness”. This saying is usually followed by a critic whose response sounds a lot like “Whoever said that don't know where to shop”. Sadly enough there really is no stock response to the second part, people either argue vehemently that there is no way to lead a meaningful life without happiness, or they say that happiness is far too fragile to base one’s existence upon its principles. 
The thing that nobody seems to do is define happiness in few enough words for it to make any sense at all, yet they will argue for it’s importance for days on end. So before we get to deep into this journey, let me define it before people splinter off into their own vague ideals. Happiness is an emotional state experienced when an individual hears, sees or feels something so uplifting that it brushes away all of their phobias, worries and preconceptions for long enough for the individual to realize how beautiful the world around them really is. I personally wrote, rewrote, edited, changed, erased, and fumbled my way through that definition, and it could probably still use work. That just goes to show how vague of a thing happiness really is.

The next issue within the very word of happiness is the question of whether love is needed in order to be happy. The problem is that these people are usually referring to Hollywood love, the big screen connection between individuals who love each other. This Hollywood love ignores every other manifestation of love that occurs daily. People can love their job, their home, their car, their family, or their spouse. This kind of love can exist without happiness, but is frail without it. Members of a family will love each other even when they may disagree and be unhappy with another member of that family. Even though happiness is not needed for a love like this, when love is present it greatly amplifies the love between the two individuals.   
Now that love and happiness have been explained, the next question is: can a person lead a well lived and meaningful life without happiness? Yes. A person can lead a meaningful life without happiness, but just as it is with love, the meaningfulness of the life is frail without happiness. A person can have a meaningful life without being happy, if they do truly love what they do. If a person dives into their area of expertise and surfaces with new ideas, then who is to say that they did not live a meaningful life?


People’s accomplishments should be the source of our judgment on their efforts, not the way they lived their life. Despite the fact that someone is socially inept, that should not stop them from loving their passion and contributing to a society that they have avoided for whatever reason. 
Though there are several people who would love, and I use that word deliberately, to argue this concept, I am not one of those people. Lennon said that “love is all you need”, but Ian Curtis said that “love will tear us apart”. Both of them are right, and both of them are wrong. Love is not all you need; you need passion and the ability to reach others in order for your life to be viewed as meaningful by anyone other than yourself. But this same love will tear you apart if it crumbles and shatters. If the people you reach do not approve of what you love then you will be ostracized from people and be seen as unimportant and meaningless. 

The real question is if the approval of other people, or the approval of the self is what is truly important. True love and true happiness are only important to the self, and therefore nothing that anyone else can say can extinguish a person’s happiness. In conclusion, one does not need to be happy to live a meaningful life, as long as they do what they love they will have meaning. It is those who act against what they love for social acceptance that will lead unimportant lives, but that is not even worth writing about.


xoxo