What is the good life?
The article I have selected to summarize for this assignment is titled as ‘The Secret to Happiness’ by David Myers . This article discusses about the beauty and secret to a happy good life. It discusses the goodness of life from different aspects. It suggests that people from different genre ought to think differently about the curve of life and its happiness. According to a survey materialism brings much content and happiness in an individual’s life and a greater amount of people wish they were rich, which proves that money brings happiness to most.
Thus suggesting that the source of good life recedes before an individual as he wishes to pursue. The article by David Myers speaks about the twentieth century with reference to people, their lives, and what made them a happier individual: the more rich a person is the more content he is in his life compared to the person who is poor and cannot fulfill his needs. Moreover, a survey was done with different classes of people which included the rich and poor, the young and the old, the children and adults and all were asked to tell their happiest period of life that they would never forget.
More than 75% of the answers were materialistic happiness that is they were the most happy when they bought a new car, or a new home, when they found a new job. These were few answers that bought them life lasting satisfaction. Furthermore, writer uses a term known as buyer’s remorse used to describe the let down which occurred purchasing something that doesn’t provide satisfaction was expected off. Therefore, the secret to happiness for long lasting satisfaction is materialism. Though, many may not agree to the fact but it is true that materialism has held its importance in our life that much that it has become a secret of happiness.
My Evaluation: What is a good life? A mother says that a good life is to see her children prosper; a father says that a good life is when he’d be able to be the strong man who could support his family; a student would say that a good life is to attain and be a top graded student; a beggar would say that it would be when he’d be able to get bread for his living; a prisoner would say that a good life is when he’ll be a freeman and when a lover is asked the same question as to what is a good life, he would say that a good life is to just have a glimpse of his love of life.
Therefore a good life may be different to different people but all we need to do is to be practical and study carefully the options that we are given and choosing the best option among them. A good life is one that is spent in a high pursuit; a life where the energy of love is given most importance than any energy of matter. Thus, to spit away the hatred through the entrance of forgiveness, revealed through love would transform life into a life that is called a good life. A good life can never be spent around until the scent of love and charm may not be imbued in all, with all the strength and passion.
We can harness the energy of the winds, the seas, and the sun. But the day a man learns the energy of love, that will be as important as the discovery of fire; and then one will realize what is meant by a good life. A good life is a life of a soldier. The pride and the passion with which a soldier walks with the soul content can’t actually be put to words. The soldier-walks upright and passes his nights waking only because the other million people there are sleeping only because that one soldier wakes and in the war zone hugs all the bullets as his medals.
He is happy with all what life has given to him. His firm belief is that the truth or secret of happiness is serving his nation, defending its honor, safeguarding people and sacrificing his life for what he holds most dear to his heart which is his motherland. Thus, he lives and dies as a person with good life. But there also live people who have everything they have in life, everything they want, the women they love, the children, the career, the kind of freedom that is the envy of all friends, the travel, the honors, the pleasure and the praise.
But then even their lives are missing something. These are the people who turn into the true hunters of a good life. They are always in search of what the true meaning of happiness is and this pursuit takes up most of their lives. The constant hunger or the dissatisfaction, despite of having everything they require, in them doesn’t let them rest and forces them to go beyond the normal realms to find the thing that will provide them with contentment, satisfaction and happiness. Thus a good life is the beginning of learning about the three most important things in life.
First, as soon as people decide to confront a problem, they realize that they are far more capable then they thought they were. Second, all energy and all the knowledge came from the same unknown source that we usually call the God. All one has to do is to believe in the paths, to honor what one wishes to do and to honor that energy. To connect up with it every day, to allow oneself to be guided by the signs and to learn by doing and not by thinking about doing is what is important for the person.
And third may lie on the observation that a good life is considered to be worse due to the sufferings we face. One should always remember that no one is alone in their troubles; there is always someone else thinking, rejoicing or suffering in the same way and that gives us strength to confront the challenge before us, to fight by moving the heavens and the earth to make a good life. A good life is always confronted by sufferings but in order to turn out those sufferings one must learn that if there is suffering then its best to accept it, because it won’t go away just because you pretend it’s not there.
If there is joy then it is best to accept it too, even though you are afraid it might end one day. Some people can only relate life through sacrifice and renunciation. Some people can only feel part of humanity when they think they are happy and leading a good life. But a good life is good when a person is self satisfied. Nothing in the world can replace this one factor which is the only key to a better life. A good life may further be best analyzed by this Mongolian myth in which there are two characters.
A doe and a wild dog that come together, two beings are very different natures: in the wild, the dog would normally kill the deer for food. In the Mongolian myth they both understand that they each need the qualities of the other if they are to survive in a hostile world and that they should, therefore join forces. To do this they must first learn to love. And in order to love they must cease to be who they are, otherwise they will never be able to live together.
With the passing of time, the wild dog comes to accept that his instinct, always focused on the struggle to survive, now serves a grater purpose; finding someone who he can rebuild the world, who he can pass his life which is termed as not life itself as alone but rather a good life. Thus in all accordance life is what we choose to be, whether alone or with people we love, happy or unhappy, satisfied or unsatisfied. The key to it is to decide what we actually want and with that self actualization comes the true essence and meaning of happiness.
