Happiness Interviews and Happiness Analyzed Essay Example for Free

Happiness Interviews and Happiness Analyzed Essay The first person I interviewed was my mom, Shirley. The reason I chose her is because she is 83 years old and raised seven kids during the early part of the Cold War. She has been married twice, she been broke then been comfortable but not wealthy, and she has seen her share of health problems. For my second interview, I chose a new co-worker named Doug. He is a 21 year old, homosexual, single father. While he does work to pay bills, he grew up in a family with money and usually gets what he asks for. He has never experienced a traumatic event such as a death in the family, serious health conditions, or hard financial times. He is the exact opposite of my mother, making him a perfect comparison. Interview with Shirley Question: What does Happiness mean to you? Response: Well, to me happiness is just being content with life. Bills paid with a little money in my pocketbook, time to relax, and spending time with people I love. Question: Has this always been your definition of Happiness? Why or why not? Response: No, of course not. When I married at 17, I thought happiness was being married and raising a family. However, being as it was just after WWII, birth control was out of my control, and as time went on, my husband failed to work, and the burden of taking care of 7 children on government funds and part-time bartending was almost too much. Happiness had fleeted from my life. My marriage ended after my eighth child died a day after birth and I had a hysterectomy. My husband felt that I was no longer a woman and filed for divorce and custody of our kids. After the divorce, my oldest son left for the Navy and my younger kids had been ordered to life with their father, I was miserable. Finally, I began working full-time, and found happiness within myself. Things got even better when I met your dad. Having a loving husband and a job I loved, I thought I had it all. I had no idea that 7 years after we married, we would get the chance to adopt you, completing the circle. Life was complete and I had never been happier. Question: What was your definition of happiness then? Response: Happiness was staying home and raising you while your dad worked and made enough for us to pay the bills and not be broke, and our family time on the weekend with no worries just each other. Question: After suffering from a life-threatening heart condition leading to open-heart surgery and almost losing your husband to a heart attack, did happiness take on a new meaning? Response: Of course. Now happiness is living one more day to see my wonderful husband, my daughter, and my precious granddaughter. Without that, life would be unbearable. Happiness is also knowing that those you love are happy and satisfied with their lives. Question: Do you think your opinion of happiness will change in the future? Response: Not likely, I mean I am 83 years old. Not much about me is gonna change at this point in my life. (S. Burkhert, personal communication, March 23, 2012) Interview with Doug Question: What does Happiness mean to you? Response: Happiness is doing what I want when I want, not answering to anyone, and having enough money to do whatever. It’s about being comfortable with whom I am as a gay man with a daughter and as a young adult with so many things I want to do. Question: Does it affect your happiness if your actions cause someone else sadness or pain? What about your daughter’s happiness. Response: No, I don’t really care about other people.  I care about me first and if it makes my daughter happy too, then it’s a bonus. I get what I want because if I’m unhappy, nobody’s happy. Question: Have you always been that greedy about your happiness? Response: Yeah, pretty much. Question: Don’t you think everyone has the right to be happy? Response: Sure, as long as it doesn’t affect me. (D. Pittman, personal communication, March 26, 2012) Happiness Analyzed Dawn Burkhert HU300 – Arts and Humanities Kaplan University In The Art of Being Human, Aristippus defined happiness as the sum of total pleasures experienced during one’s lifetime. However, after interviewing two totally different people, reading Chapter 7 in The Art of Being Human, and analyzing my own thoughts about happiness, I do not believe Aristippus’ definition to be accurate. To some, it’s about raising a family and enjoying life’s little moments, to others it’s about personal happiness at any cost, and to a few it is about doing good deeds for other people. Happiness can be fleeting or ever-lasting, can be spiritually influenced or materialistic. For every person, happiness takes on a different meaning. During the first interview with my 83 year old mom, Shirley, family was a key ingredient to her happiness. She was raised to believe in marriage and large families, as well as never putting herself first. Her happiness lies within knowing that she is making her family happy and spending time with her loved ones. She never asks for much, but always gives more than anyone could ever ask. Acts of such selflessness are not as plentiful as in her days, post the Great Depression and during the Cold War. On the other side of the coin, Doug, my second interview is very much the believer is selfish happiness. He feels that his happiness lies with him getting what he wants, when he wants, and without regard to others. As a 21 year old single man, Doug feels that he must always be happy before he can make his daughter happy. He said he would break a promise to his daughter in a heartbeat to do or get something he wanted. He stated that his happiness should come before all others. He has little consideration for others and could care less about other people’s opinions. This seems to be a destructive attitude to have, especially since we will not always get what we want, when we want, or how we want. As for me, I think that happiness should be both about ourselves and those surrounding us. Without happiness, we are nothing more than God-made robots. We were made to feel empathy, sympathy, joy, sadness and other sordid emotions. Happiness is supposed to be the most cherished of emotions according to the emotional state theory of happiness (http://plato. stanford. edu/entries/happiness/). Of all theories of happiness I have researched through the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, I agree the most with the life satisfaction theory. This theory states that happiness is a positive outlook on a person’s whole life not just a few selected events. The life satisfaction theory is the most applicable of theories I think because it tells us not to pick and choose which events in our life brought us happiness or which we would like to forget. It lends itself to the idea that regret of past events or bitter feelings of things we cannot change is not acceptable†¦be happy with who and what you are regardless of your situation and others’ opinions. That describes me so well and I think everyone should feel this way. Happiness is a wonderful feeling, no matter what it is that makes us feel this emotion. I doubt there will ever be a universal opinion of what happiness really is, what it constitutes, and what brings it to us. Some people are happiest while serving others, some while being served, and others are content just being alone. Regardless of how we obtain happiness, we all deserve happiness.