“As long as it makes you happy.” This phrase has replaced good luck as the concluding tagline at the end of our conversations. In a recent piece for The New York Times Stephanie Rosenbloom seeks answers to the question, “but will it make you happy?” One interviewee gave this enlightened response, [Quote] “The idea that you need to go bigger to be happy is false,” she says. “I really believe that the acquisition of material goods doesn’t bring about happiness.”[1] [End Quote]
If one wants to have a self-declared good life it would seem that a central goal would have to be happiness. But even if we stop accumulating goods as the interviewee did, isn’t the focus still on what makes me feel good? When did “me, myself, and I” become the focal point of life? Who among us can leave our jobs for a year, go find ourselves in India, and come back to the same well-paid position as does Julia Roberts in her latest movie Eat, Pray, Love? Doesn’t this point of view seem just a bit self-centered? Sheryl Crow questions the self-centered life in her song “If it makes you happy” suggesting that we still might just end up sad.
“The pursuit of happiness” is perhaps the most quoted and least understood phrase in the Declaration of Independence. In 1776 the word “happiness” did not mean what it means today. Thomas Jefferson had in mind what Aristotle wrote, [Quote] “happiness is an activity of the soul in accordance with virtue” [End Quote]. “Virtue” is a proper disposition toward being good and doing good. Judging from the lives of those who signed the Declaration of Independence, they gave up their good for the good of others. Indeed out of the 56 signatories, most lost everything during The Revolutionary War. “Pursuit of happiness” in 1776 cost the American founders what is stated in the last line of the famed document “we pledge our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.”
It would seem that so-called happiness should have such revolutionary heroes. Let us celebrate the happiness an American soldier brings as he gives aid to children after a terrorist attack on their village. Let us celebrate the young people who bring happiness to inner-city children through Teach for America. Let us celebrate the International Justice Mission whose members bring happiness to women lifting them out of the slavery of prostitution. Let us celebrate the thousands of volunteers who bring happiness to the elderly through Meals on Wheels.
Some consider accumulation of stuff the essence of happiness. I believe happiness is misapplied. Instead of our final comment in a conversation being “as long it makes you happy” might we say, “As long as it makes you serve others.” For Moody Radio, this is Dr. Mark Eckel, personally seeking truth wherever it’s found.
Mark is always attempting to put into practice what he writes in his blogs; this one is no exception. He serves at Crossroads Bible College. To be aired on Moody Radio, Fall, 2010.
[1] Stephanie Rosenbloom. “But Will It Make You Happy?” New York Times 7 August 2010.