relationships and happiness
I think, to be happy, you need to be able to form mature, fulfilling relationships with people.
Relationships can come in various forms. You can be a brother/sister, a father/mother, a son/daughter, a friend/girlfriend/boyfriend, a wife/husband, a colleague, a compatriot, a classmate, a mentor, a mentoree, a disciple, a preacher, a young person with new ideas, an old person with time-tested wisdom, a coproponent of a cause, a cofollower of a cause, a coseeker of fun, a person who has just passed that way, a trouble-alleviator, a happiness inducer, an old time friend, a new friend on probation, a person of the opposite sex, a provider of support and help, a provider of memes, a person to grow together with, a person to form a community with, a fellow human following humanity, and many other ways.
With any person, you can form a relationship in some form.
And when you are able to form many fulfilling relationships with many people, you will probably be "happy".
Comments
Hello,
I do not intend to say that "more" relationships lead to "more" happiness.
But basically I think that if one is able to form fulfilling relationships with several people, he will feel happier in general, compared to if he couldnt, everything else being the same. The relationships could be of various ways -- I would not consider relationship with God to be one which I am pointing to -- in that case, in fact, it would be another way of getting happiness: feeling in touch with somebody who created this world. But practically speaking, I think, even love for God leads a priest to have fulfilling relationships with other folks that he preaches, etc, and that also helps add to his happiness.
Posted by: Gaurang | June 11, 2008 4:43 PM