Another day, another death.

[sorcyress]

So, a few weeks ago, I was talking with a friend in e-mail, and he mentioned that he believed happiness to be zero-sum --that is, all happiness and all unhappiness cancel each other out.

I disagreed, because, for some time now, I've believed in karma based happiness. You will gain happiness in your life equivilant to the amount of happiness you bring to other people, and vice versa. Obviously, this isn't exactly true, but I like to pretend it is.

I either need to revise my stance or figure out what *horrible* thing I did recently to earn me the last week or so.

Gary Gygax died in his sleep this morning. You know who I'm talking about, the guy who helped co-create Dungeons and Dragons. Yeah.

I'd really like it if cool people would stop dying. Bla, bla, circle of life, world is bigger than all of us, etc. Still though.

((It's weird to feel happy when there are terrible things in the world. I think it's okay as long as the terrible things aren't what's making you happy. Maybe I'm just no good at being sad. Does that make me shallow? This is going to have to turn into a bigger essay sometime.))

~Sor
MOOP!

Comments

[miriampenguin.livejournal.com]

Hey... have you checked out Our Open Mic (http://www.ouropenmic.com/)? I linked to it from my journal a while back... I'm actually one of the bloggers on the site, and it has some different stuff of mine than my LJ. The philosophical stuffs about happiness you mentioned actually reminded me of the site (even though I had just refreshed there not 2 minutes before going to my LJ friends list)... I think you'd like it.

[shield-toad111.livejournal.com]

You will gain happiness in your life equivilant to the amount of happiness you bring to other people, and vice versa.

See, I take this one step farther and actually get a greater amount of happiness in my life when I bring any amount of happiness to other people. (Especially when the plotting involved is so much fun... ;) ) Which is why one surefire way of improving my mood is to give me other people to focus on and try and make happy. Because then I can take myself out of the absorption in my own problems and focus my attentions on others, where I feel I can accomplish a lot more.

It's weird to feel happy when there are terrible things in the world. I think it's okay as long as the terrible things aren't what's making you happy. Maybe I'm just no good at being sad. Does that make me shallow?

There are always terrible things going on in the world. But if everyone were to bear the weight of the world on their shoulders, I think there would be just a general mood of depression everywhere, which wouldn't be productive at all. So let small things make you happy. Spend more time being happy than sad. Use that happiness to improve the lives of people around you. Then, if you're really ambitious and have the things that you can control under control and happy, you can start worrying about the world.
Of course, this is only the opinion of a perpetual optimist.

[swingerzetta.livejournal.com]

For a while I considered the zero-sum happiness theory. I have pretty much considered every theory, as far as I know... But I eventually abandoned it. I figured that if happiness and sadness canceled itsself out, the best I could hope for was neutrality, and went for quite a while feeling, and acting, neutral. I don't remember much of this time, as you may imagine. it was a bland existance. But as I met people I eventually discovered, you know what, there are some really miserable people out there. Now, this is hardly cause for celebration, but, when you look at miserable people, you sortof realize that the unhappiness for them outweighs the happiness.

Now go around the world. To Thailand for example. Not really all that better off than us, much less, in fact, but Everybody Smiles, people are friendly and social, people share meals and tell stories and jokes all day. Their happiness outweighs their unhappiness.

So I concluded that happiness or sadness comes to those who make it come, and for me, who was doing my very best to not let either emotion enter my life, neither came.

This line of thinking also made me realize that emotions have very little to do with Actual Circumstances. People in thailand living day-to-day, scraping by on tourist dollars in the winter and going hungry in the summer, are happy. People in America, surrounded by convenience stores, with stable jobs and a warm bed, are miserable.

Terrible things can happen in the world, and you can still feel happy, simply because you might Want to feel happy.

[mysticturtle.livejournal.com]

I think goodness is more important than happiness in an ultimate, universal way, but happiness is damned important on a personal level.

I further think that happiness and goodness are interconnected and infectious. As in, if you do the best you can then you can feel happy about yourself and your life and you inspire other people to do the best they can. And if everyone was trying all the time there'd be heaven on earth.

And yes, crappy things happen but there's no point in letting it make you miserable beyond healthy levels of mourning or the impulse to help solve the problems you can affect.

[madbodger.livejournal.com]

No, lack of skill in feeling sad helps you cheer your friends up, which boosts your kharma. I get the "but you're supposed to feel worse/wallow/lachrimate/whatever", but try to turn down the offered guilt trip. My feelings are my own, and they are valid, whatever they are (or aren't). So are yours. I like you the way you are.