Conclusion

Happiness, is it something that you are just given when you are born or something you have to find?  I have found in my wild and crazy search that happiness can take many forms for different people.  Look to your left then to your right there are many different types of people out there.  No one is alike as much as people say that they can be they are not.  I looked and looked to find the one item that would make me and or everyone around me happy.  I found that there is no such thing as a single key to happiness, but there are many things that will lead one person to happiness but it is up them to find those things and use them.  I found that money can’t buy you happiness but it can sure as heck help you on your path to happiness by making you life a little bit more enjoyable if you know how to spend it right.  Then I found that Religion can make many people happy but it is really what is in side the person and if they feel that is the only thing to their happiness.  With that there are people out there that say that you can predict happiness based on your past.  They say that if you did not enjoy something and don’t give it another chance or hold a gauge against an idea that you may be holding yourself form happiness. I really actually don’t all agree with that throy just based on the fact that it sounds crazy.  I found in my research that it takes many things to make me happy but I need to find the right things.  In the end I find that I want to go one from this and look into this topic a bit deeper and find out what I can do to make people happier.  What things can I go out and do on a daily basis and make the general public happier? I feel that an influence by me to someone’s life will in the end make me happy because I did a good deed.

critique 5

The Happiness of Religion

 

According to Father Conner Alexander a Priest at Christ and St. Luke’s of Norfolk, VA, in an interview on what is happiness to a leader of faith he answered a few questions that I compiled to ask. Questions such as what is happiness in the eyes of a leader of faith, how do you suggest that someone could find happiness, is happiness possible, and does happiness exist outside of faith?  Father Conner had many answers being with the statement that “happiness is self knowing.” He then continues to answer the question by quoting a scripter from the bible known as the Lady at the Well( John 4:5-30) saying there was a lady who had been married five times and was cheating on her current husband with another man.  As she went to a well one day there was Jesus and he claimed that he still wanted to complete this ladies life and have her follow him even after all that she has done.  Father Conner continues by telling me that what he sees from this passage is that God wants everyone to be happy and that he is not the all mighty smiter. He wishes to be in a relationship with everyone and that is a way for everyone to be happy to be in a relationship with God.  As Father Conner goes on he tells me that he believes that everyone has a potential for happiness and that God created everyone for a good reason and because of humanities rebellion(sin) it has fallen (there is no good) how ever it seems to look. He claims that the church is there to restore the good in life and to make all happy and in a relationship with God.  In the End with the final question waiting Father Conner says that in his life he has not known what life would be like with out faith and would not know any other way to live but with faith and that in his own eyes he does not feel there is true happiness with out faith and a strong relationship with God.

 

     As a man of faith I tend to believe what Father Conner says. But there are some things that I can not go with.  First let me say that faith makes me happy. Just the fact of going to church every Sunday and meeting up with fellow walkers in faith makes my happy and sets a good tone for the week ahead.  I noticed when I don’t go I don’t have such a good week as if I did go.  I do believe that God made us good and humanity made choices and changed good into bad and that the church is here to guide the human race in the right path to happiness.  Then when he goes on and tells me about the lady at the well I do believe in that because what I have been taught about faith and that God will always forgive you even if you have many mistakes in your life. Now when it came to the last question I had a problem believing that you can only be happy with faith.  Now yes I am happy with faith in my life, but before faith I was happy to just in a different manner. I feel people can be happy in any walk of life but it may not be the right type of happiness it could be false happiness.

Father Alexander, Coner. Personal interview. 23 March 2008.

critique 4

CAN HAPPINESS BE PREDICTED

 

According to Tiffany Sharples, of TIME, in the article Can you Predict Happiness she points out with her main clause that we can no predict happiness. She states that when people try to figure out how much happiness they will have they get what is called attention collapse(when we imagine future experiences, people compare them with alternative experiences- ones where we’ve had in the past, or other experiences  we might have before or after). She goes on to tell how there was a time when you could compare a company picnic on a weekend or go to a spa.  This is where she claims that attention collapse will fall in with the past times that you have been to a company picnic and it has been horrific and the spa sounds so much better.  On the other hand she said that you should look at it as a chance to get to know other people at you work and have a good time due to the fact that every thing is not the same as it was in the past. Then she goes in a different route when she compares a marriage to not being married.  She claims that when someone is toste up between marring one person or another they are making a choice that well last forever.  When they make that choice the other person soon just fades away and all is done but what if when you make that decision and you think what if that person moves in down the road from me or that person goes where I go it will make for a person to have attention collapse. She claims that when faced with irrevocable decisions people are happier with the outcome than when they have the opportunity to change their minds.

 

            I find that when Tiffany Sharples wrote her article she had to have been writing a lot about that has happened to her in the past. But see on my side I feel that all of this is not true I do agree with her in the fact that you can not judge the past on the future.  I have been there and done that.  Life if full of untold things and is at many times a mystery.  On the other hand I do not agree with her and when she claims that when we are faced with the irrevocable decisions and we are happier with the out come. How can you be happier if you do not know what the outcome of the other situation would be I feel that is truly not researched to the fullest. I feel that we all make choices and we have to face them and that there not always filled with candy at the end some times they are filled with sour tarts.

 

 

Sharples, Tiffany.”Can You Predict Happiness?”TIME.1April2008.http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1714473,00.html

critique 3

According to Father Conner Alexander a Priest at Christ and St. Luke’s of Norfolk, VA, in an interview on what is happiness to a leader of faith he answered a few questions that I compiled to ask. Questions such as what is happiness in the eyes of a leader of faith, how do you suggest that someone could find happiness, is happiness possible, and does happiness exist outside of faith?  Father Conner had many answers being with the statement that “happiness is self knowing.” He then continues to answer the question by quoting a scripter from the bible know as the Lady at the Well( John 4:5-30) say that there was a lady who had been married five times and was cheating on her current husband with another man.  As she went to a well one day there was Jesus and he claimed that he still wanted to complete this ladies life and have her follow him even after all that she has done.  Father Conner continues by telling me that what he see form this passage is that God wants everyone to be happy and that he is not the all might smite. He wishes to be in a relationship with everyone and that is a way for everyone to be happy to be in a relationship with God.  As Father Conner goes on he tells me that he believes that everyone has a potential for happiness and that God created everyone for a good reason and because of humanities rebellion(sin) it has fallen (there is no good) how ever it seems to look. He claims that the church is there to restore the good in life and to make all happy and in a relationship with God.  In the End with the final question waiting Father Conner says that in his life he has not know what life would be like with out faith and would not know any other way to live but with faith and that in his own eyes he does not feel there is true happiness with out faith and a strong relationship with God.

 

     As a man of faith I tend to believe what Father Conner says. But there are some things that I can not go with.  First let me say that faith makes me happy just the fact of going to church every Sunday and meeting up with fellow walkers in faith makes my happy and sets a good tone for the week ahead.  I notice when I don’t go I don’t have such a good week as if I did go.  I do belive that God made us in good and humanity made choices and changed good into bad and that the church is here to guide the human race in the right path to happiness.  Then when he goes on and tell me about the lady at the well I do believe in that because what I have been taught about faith and that God will always forgive you even if you have been with so many lovers. Now when it came to the last question I had a problem believing that you can only be happy with faith.  Now yes I am happy with faith in my life, but before faith I was happy to just in a different manner. I feel people can be happy in any walk of life but it may not be the right type of happiness it could be false happiness.

Father Alexander, Coner. Personal interview. 23 March 2008.

critique 2

Money for Happiness

In an article written by David Futrelle of CNN Money he asked the question Can Money Buy Happiness? In this article he starts of by telling the reader about an old Lexis commercial where when you pay a lot of money for a high-end car who would want to ruin it by putting a bumper sticker on it.  David talks about how money can help find happiness but not buy you happiness. He states many things that will contribute to ones happiness and that money is a contributing factor. First, he brought up the area of a persons social group. A large scale study at Chicago University by the National Opinion Research Center had shown that 50% of people who had a large social group were much happier then those who had a smaller group. Money came in to affect when one would be able to hold a party or be able to set up a regular lunch date but most of all invest in your friends.

He then goes on and talk about the mere fact on how people tell their selves that if I just had a little bit more money I would be happy. But in fact when he shows that when people get more money they are not happy but that they still face the same problems they just want more and can not get enough. His argument on this was that for years humans have been able to adapt too many situations and have been since the Stone Age.  So when people come across more money they adapt to that amount and wish to move higher. And in addition to not having enough money people are also induce more stress on their self when they have more money.

Next, David goes in to the topic of envoy.  He brings out how people say to their self how they wish they had what the family next door has. He shows the not knowing the facts is where envoy sits in when all reality the family next door only makes 100$ more and just spends their money in a different manner and it seems on the outside that they have a better life.  On top of that he takes the read and shows them how two families with the same income level live differently and how ones life is happier then the other.  That is show by the family who lives in the upscale sub division and spends all their money on high end stuff tends to have higher stress and the family who live a mediocre life tends to be much happier.

He then concludes his article by telling the read just the same as in the beginning that money can help someone find happiness, but he says that “money is bliss if you want to know how to use the money you have to become happier, you need to understand just what it is that brings you happiness in the first place.”  He also gives a piece of advise and he said “when you are in that “hot” state, wager to buy, you tend to be an extremely poor judge of what you’ll think of a product when you cool down later” he then goes on and give advices on how to take time and think about what you really want and if it will make you happy.

I strongly agree with David in his article. I agree with the point that people can live with a lot of money and be happy if they know how to use it and know what will make them happy.  Money can not alone buy you happiness as he says it can only help you in your search for happiness.  When it comes to making more money I agree once again if you are making a set amount of money for a period of time then you are custom to it you have adapted to that level of income. Now if you start making more money you think well wow now I have more money to spend and spend it on thing you might not really need. Look at it this way you have lived with out so far do you really need it now.  David also talked about that too how people are poor judge of items when they buy on the spot and that is what I feel would make a person un-happy down the road.  I have done such things before and regretted it down the roads say when the bills came in.  But the one part that this author wrote about was the friendship part.  I agree 100% that a person will be much happier if they have a larger social group and when they have that money and mix it with that social group they are able to entertain and meet up and gout for a good time and in turn make you happy. But I still wonder is their more to happiness is souly left to just money helping someone find happiness or is there more things that would tie in on top of money?

Furtrel, David.”Can Money Buy Happiness?”CNNMoney.29 March2008. http://money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/moneymag_archive/2006/08/01/8382225/index.htm