by BJ Beauchamp
I have sat and contemplated, then sat and stared at a wall. What does the pursuit of happiness mean? I then started thinking about death, which I do fairly regularly as notices of it appear often about people I am remotely related to, and, of course, there are those celebrity obituaries where you feel like you knew the person so well just because they were in your living room so often on the TV. Recently everyone in my house had fallen ill from a nasty flu. We were so sick it just made life miserable, so much so that I began to wonder if death would be more palatable in comparison to a life of such illness on a continuing basis. It would be hard, under those circumstances, to imagine pursuing anything other than good health. So for the last few weeks, everything has been about getting better. For me, especially this week, it is all about feeling well enough to continue to work so I can pay the doctor bills that keep coming because I need to keep working instead of resting which kept me from feeling like death warmed over.
You can’t be happy all the time, so to pursue happiness for me just feels like a waste of energy. Maybe it really isn’t a pursuit of happiness so much as it is evading unhappiness, pain and danger. To pursue is to grab for something, which sounds unpleasant. But to get away, that flows for me, and I don’t mind exerting energy for that. Fleeing from bad things is fundamental in life. Being fleet of foot is capital when you’re surrounded by negative people. But our inalienable right to flee doesn’t have the same ring to it as our inalienable right to the pursuit of happiness. Clever guys, those founding fathers. Bet they were good at fleeing, too, like from tyranny and taxation without representation.
Beyond my immediate purview I see others fleeing, but many more appear to be in the pursuit of happiness, albeit much seems to be about acquiring wealth, status, and things in general. Everybody wants stuff, like a fabulous career, new car, house, clothes, shoes, watches, iPods, game players, and home theaters. I don’t see that as something to pursue because that just is not where my happy meter lives. Mine is right there in those big pools of eyes with the waggling tails. I’m talking about my dogs – all five of them. I do pursue the heck out of them as in all over the yard, down the street, in the house, on the furniture and off. Then there are the parents whom of course I didn’t have to pursue, and indeed I was very fortunate in that lottery.
So my happy meter is all about those that I love and those that love me back. Friends, family, pets, and not in any particular order, although the family and pets have put up with me longer and in closer proximity, so it is only fitting they get first position.
Hummingbirds make me happy. I like having them around, zooming here and there and telling me off when I get in their way. I put out fresh food for them in clean containers around the yard, but that’s not pursuing, simply welcoming them to my home where only the finest in hummingbird fare is served.
It would have been daft to pursue the birds, as it would have likely driven the birds away, or gotten an angry response from the birds, including being fanned, if not flogged, by their fierce little wings.
For me the concept of happiness is simply to enjoy life as it is for whatever it is, not for what it isn’t. All you can do is welcome others to your party. Whether they come or not is another story.
Like the little calendar sayings go, “Life is unpredictable, eat dessert first.” I figure I can always walk off the calories later. Come join me, but look out for the dogs – they are Chihuahuas after all
