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No Thing Can Make You Happy. You Make It Happy.
At some point in life, one comes to the realization that things do not have an intrinsic meaning or quality. Nothing is inherently good or bad. We may first learn this when we chase something we want and after failing enough times we give up and chase something else. We then remember the first thing we were chasing and recognize that that thing doesn’t matter as much anymore.
It doesn’t matter anymore because we stopped making it matter.
At some level of awareness, we know this, or have experienced this. The problem is that we live as if some goal or person or event or thing is inherently good, and as a result, we want that thing.
I’m not that old but I’ve seen people three times my age on the pursuit of happiness. I was right there with them. I know the path well. It’s a roundabout. It’s a cul-de-sac. It leads nowhere.
Allow me to digress a bit, because it is pivotal that we understand that nothing has any built-in meaning. It is why two people can look at someone, listen to an album, hear a philosophical argument or read a book and have different reactions.
People don’t like this. They want to be the ones who follow the right religion (or no religion), who appreciate the best art and have the correct political standpoint. After exploring four religions…
