Does society place too high a premium on happiness?
I think society does place a premium on happiness and it distracts us. We think that happiness becomes the purpose of life. And there we get into this whole notion of the by-product versus. Is it the goal, or is it the side effect? Happiness is a side effect, but our society just drums it into us that somehow we're supposed to be happy, and that our society has provided the answer to that happiness in some form or another. I think it's really to our detriment, I think we get distracted and I think a lot of people end up questioning themselves because they somehow feel that they're failing, because let's face it, we're not happy all the time. I mean, you know, happy in the sense of "oh gosh, everything's just peachy", and "oh, I just have the perfect life and the perfect wife and the perfect job and the perfect kid and the perfect dog" - no, none of us are perfect, none of it is perfect. Happiness isn't a constant state - it can't be. It won't be. We wouldn't know happiness if we didn't know suffering. We have to know suffering; we have to embrace suffering, because we grow through suffering. And the purpose of the growth is therefore to be of service. It's why I believe the attitudes in the gospels are so profoundly true. Jesus' sermon on the mount or on the plain depending on which gospel you're looking at where he's saying "Blessed are the poor, for they will lead" or "Blessed are the hungry, for they will be fed," or "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God". But the peacemakers, they get dumped on. It's not easy; it's hard work, its painful work. You don't feel blessed, you don't feel happy without having suffered something first.
