Happiness: what a fucking conundrum.
You would think that happiness should just come by virtue of being a human being. I don't even know where the idea of happiness came from, or the idea that we ought to be happy. It is only one of a myriad of feelings that we get to experience in our lives. In the midst of different feelings, there are of course some that we prefer more than others.
For the most part, we lean toward the more preferable feelings, which are often the more pleasant feelings. We, for the most part, avoid difficult feelings, feelings that cause discomfort. I think this creates some tension in us. For some this is a minimal tension, for others it is an intense conflict.
I find it interesting, however, when we talk about feelings as being better than others; putting value judgements on feelings. Raising up the value of happiness, and invalidating other feelings altogether. There is an intimate language-feeling relationship that we learn to employ. We glue particular behaviours and feelings together with our words. Words are therefore vital; these words we use to describe ourselves and our experiences.
I wonder, if we valued all of our feelings equally, what our lives would look like
