I’m H-A-P-P-Y…
“Happiness never appeared to me as an absolute aim, I am even inclined to compare such moral aims to the ambitions of a pig. The ideals that have lighted my way are kindness, beauty and truth.” So said Albert Einstein.
Happiness seems to be such an absolute aim for our society. Materialism trades on this desire, that by buying more stuff the net result will be happiness.
Surely if England beat Portugal this afternoon and go on to lift the world cup, my happiness wont depend whether I’ve watched the match of a 40inch high definition plasma TV or a crappy old 17 inch box.
And if England were to win that happiness would be short lived, the world would keep on turning, work would still need to be done, the lawn would need mowing and the smile would slowly fade. Compared to the values of kindness, beauty and truth the whole thing seems fairly shallow. These values seem to be sadly missing from the ‘beautiful game’ and have been replaced by a ‘win-at-all-costs’ attitude which leaves football fans cringing as another multi-million-pound-man rolls around in agony because a mysterious force unseen by the TV camera’s has hurled him to the ground.
Maybe footballers are just echoing society, what matters are results, and winning results means happiness. But anybody who has ‘won’ by cheating will known how shallow that supposed moment of elation is.
Maybe happiness shouldn’t be our ultimate goal, particularly if that happiness comes at somebody else’s expense. Maybe by embracing the values that Einstein points to then we’d find a deeper contentment. And maybe there’s more to happiness than winning.
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