Money and the search for happiness

My friend's a college student on the road to a high paying toxicology job, he hopes. The pursuit of money is quite high on his list of priorities it seems, although he claims he knows it won't bring him happiness necessarily. This summer, he's working 50 hour weeks and making money.

I, on the other hand, "slack off" at home a couple days each week reading books, the internet, or just thinking. I'm not in college to make money, I'm there to learn, and have fun doing so. I don't spend time memorizing facts much while my friend brags about spending hours and hours memorizing biological names and processes at school.

He's a good guy, and will most likely succeed at whatever he ends up wanting to do. I imagine he'll get that job he wants and the house, and car.
What will I become? I don't know. Maybe I'll go on to grad. school. Maybe I'll end up with a bunch of debt and a measly income(by American standards). I tell myself I won't care, that if I keep feeding my lust of learning, of philosophying, I'll be happy.

What's happiness anyway? Is it the absence of suffering? But, suffering is relative, right?

 

Log in or Sign up to hide all adverts.

Happiness is not a form of currency, it is a state of being. The goal <i>should</i> be to obtain this state through process, and not result. Process is ubiquitous, while a result-fixated consciousness can never be truly satisfied because it is constantly in a state of "want" and "want more".

 

Log in or Sign up to hide all adverts.

That sounds great but how do you do that? How do you explain that to people so that they can do that, when popular culture is hellbent against it.
Some people buy self-help books, some go on outlandish searches, some go to religion.

People are different. Some have or do things that would make others unhappy. It's almost as if someone else's "happiness" is less valid if I would be unhappy in their shoes.

I know the question, "How do you obtain happiness?" is a little cliche. I want explore ways in which people take the lofty words and make them of use in their lives. Some people are driven by acomplishments, some by pleasure, etc. Is there a base for all these?

 

Log in or Sign up to hide all adverts.

A furry patch of enlightened mold growing on the sofa.
But you'll be feeding that lust for learning!
Doing shit, but at least philosophically!!

Yeah, so's herpes and welfare.

Truly I loathe the way you people go on about things being 'relative'. Shaddup.

 

If you want to use the negative definition, sure.

 

It does get one's goat after a while. I like the mold thing. :m:

 

Let me see ... happiness is an inflated pinkish thing made to make people think that shit shouldn't stink.

 

Eww. Your shit stinks? Mine smells of roses and elderberries. With just a slight hint of pecans. But only discernable to the distinguished palate of the connoisseur.

Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

And there's nothing wrong with being mold if that's what you like. Some are made for business, some for pleasure, some for useless philosophical rambling. Pick your path and go with it.

The thing is that sometimes it is good to be moldy. Become the mold, examine the moldness from all angles. Then, when you tire of mold, do something else. There's always more out there, you know. But, to me, anything is better than the useless pursuit of material happiness. There's better things to be doing than counting your cash.

 

Happiness...I think that is ridiculous. If money makes people happy, I would not see so many unhappy faces around me.
And the same goes for doing nothing.

Only those that search for true happiness may find it. Remember, the way is the solution.


(Hah, what bullshit....)

 

I think that the definition of happiness depends on the person. Some people are perfectly happy staring at a wall all day. other people are happy being in the pursuit of/ having a lot of money. Posessions can make some other people happy, which is related to money. Relationships make others happy.

one must pursue whatever gives them genuine happiness.

For me, I want a balance. I will get a job that I enjoy and go to university in subjects that I like. when I move away to go to University, I'm sure I will meet new friends and have good relationships. I like to have enough money for enjoyment, I don't expect to have much money in University, but I will have enough that I won't be poor or so that I don't have to worry a lot about it.

Some people would be happy as mold, it depends on what what makes YOU happy. Maybe that guy you were talking about get happy when he receives a fat paycheck, if he is then let him be, you should worry about your happiness first, then you csn help others achieve their own sense of happiness.

 

Perhaps you are right, I think I would be happy when I am totally drunk and stoned while lying in the arms of a whore. It is all relative, isn´t it?

Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

 

Money makes me happy. If I have money, I can go swimming, to concerts, I can buy cd's and books, and most of all, I can buy fancy clothes. I can go mountainhiking. Things cost.

Money enables one to do things. Never underestimate money.

 

Money can help you archieve happiness, but that is not neccessarily valid for everyone. There are people who are very happy without employing money.

But I do think that for most of us, money plays a great part in our quest for happyness, but it is not the goal for most.

 

I suppose that in the strive to earn money, people forget what they wanted to do with it in the first place ...

 

Money only possesses value when it changes hands.

And.

All that glisters is not gold.

 

Naw, more exact, money only has value if someone accepts it and offers you something else for it.

And most money doesn´t glitter

Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

Only the minor values...

Money only has value when you and others believe that it is valuable.

 

Money can make life a hell of a lot easier, but acquiring it and keeping it is a skill that can take its toll on the character of the person. That aside, not everyone who makes money is unscrupulous, shallow and greedy, though the general consensus is that the majority are. But money alone, won't bring you hapiness.

Happiness, is first and foremost, a state of mind. The way you perceive people and situations plays a big part in the way you feel about things. Cynicism; and holding on to anger and bitterness, are not condusive to a happy state of mind, no matter how rich or poor you are. Doing something you dislike, or worse still, NOT doing something you love, is a death sentence to happiness.

Happiness, can be derived, by trying to see the good, instead of constantly seeing the bad; by being unconditionally kind and generous, without expecting reciprocation; by forgiving and forgetting, living and letting live; by always seeing the glass half full; by enjoying the simple things, the sunshine, the beach, the walk in the park; by talking to strangers with a smile; by getting a pet you can devote yourself to; by doing hobbies or work that you love; by being positive and not letting the bastards get you down.

It's fuckin' ard!

 

Skippystones:

Ha!
'course ya do.

Rosa:

Or a form of denial that allows for a human with no ambition, no purpose, no drive or motif to settle down into a vagrant, nonproductive, lazy comfort that he righteously calls "happiness."


Dream:

*fuming*
Nice play.

And sure, its nice to be moldy and keep growing and sporing away the small hours of one's life, refusing the boundaries imposed from without ....until one wakes up late in life an old human, decrepit, useless, and divorced from mankind at least physically.
Not saying the alternative is a pursuit of material things for its not. Dabbling is a disservice to oneself and others, discipline is not.
Of what use is an englightened Rip Van Winkle?

 

"What's money? A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and
goes to bed at night and in between does what he wants to do."
Bob Dylan

 

Yep.

My man gets up at aroun' 2 o'clock in the afternoon, goes out, takes a piss, comes back in our humble little trailer to bitch about the squirrels.
Sure he's had a coupla beers and when it ain't a trip to WalMart, its a whole afternoon spent playin' them video games.... ain't seen a warm bean in days, but at least he's gone to bed happy.