Hey Lark. Thanks for reviving this thread. I hadn't been on TypeC for a while but I have continued on my path to self-discovery.
No probs, its one of the best threads here and closely resonates with me. To be honest the fact that you've done or have a lot of the things I'm striving for but havent got or havent tried or havent decided about yet and still feel the way I do makes me have second thoughts about any of them by themselves as the solutions to the angst I experience.
Your idea on fighting for happiness is very appealing. In fact, if I can make a link, it seems to closely reflect Canadian author John Ralston Saul’s interpretation of the “pursuit of happiness†mentioned in the American constitution. This author’s interpretation of the intentions of the writers of the constitution was exactly that, the freedom to search for one’s “happiness†as a path rather than as an objective of flighty joy.
In the second paragraph that I’m quoting from you, I think that you are really getting at the heart of the matter for me, not complicating it further. Is authenticity even a route to happiness? What is more important, the form or the content? I know it would be tempting to say the content. But what about all those statistics that say that married, healthy, wealthy people are on average happier? Is happiness brought about by satisfying superficial requisites for success? Perhaps these people simply completely bought into the whole image or maybe this image of success closely resembles their personal requirements for happiness.
I have heard of Saul he is a critic of corporatism am I right? I'm not sure if its the same guy.
The think about authenticity is its, for me, something I've experienced rather than an abstract goal, it is something which has been conceptualised by religious who believe in predestination or preordained designs and divine plans as the feeling of being "on track" or "vocation" or "calling", when you feel that you're really living and being yourself, perhaps its contentment, although maybe its not because some of the most real living I've done HAS involved disappointment or suffering but its preferable to apathy or alienated mundanity.
I would say that there's no tick list for happiness and it does possibly change over time too, so its possible that for one person at one time that list of things, the superficial requisites, works but wouldnt for another, the difference being whether they experience them as enlivening, uplifting or challenging rather than just burdensome and boring.