Solitude……
Well it has been awhile since my last blog…. seemed to have taken a side step from cyber space and the world of blogdom. I had thrown myself into work (earning that dollar) and keeping other people happy. Well I am back to where I had started; trying to work out what will make me truly happy. I am not unhappy, however there is something missing.
That’s the enigma of life, what will make you happy. I know that I am not the only one with this conundrum. If you google “What is Happiness” you will get about 403,000,000 results. That’s a lot of information on the subject of Happiness. “The Pursuit of Happiness” site informs me that there are 7 Habits of Happy People ; Relationships, Caring, Exercise, Flow, Spiritual Engagement and Meaning, Strengths and Virtues, Positive Thinking: Optimism and Gratitude.
I have great Relationships with family and friends; I believe I am a very Caring person; Exercise, well I get a lot of exercise around the house, however I have recently joined a gym; Flow, I have been deeply involved in trying to reach my goals and am succeeding, maybe not as fast as I would like in some areas but that is life; Spiritual Engagement and Meaning, I consider myself a spiritual person; I have Strengths and Virtues and I am the eternal Optimist and Grateful for all that I have and yet I am stuck in my conundrum.
My daughters are planning a trip to India and flipping through their brochure on India I came across the Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan which was described as a peaceful haven with a carefree lifestyle, where Gross National Happiness is deemed more important than Gross National Product. Sounds like heaven, yet the country does not appear in any of the Rankings of the Worlds Happiest Countries. It appears that the world’s fascination with the Happiness Rankings of a country is centered on the GDP of a nation and not the actual state of happiness of the inhabitants.
The Forbes site has a slide show of the world’s happiest and saddest countries and there are some very sad countries in the world battling with their own adversities, however there were a couple of captions against pictures of two countries that caught my eye. Senegal, ranked as 92 in the Legatum Prosperity Index and one of the 20 saddest countries in the slide show, the caption quoted: “Literacy rate at 50%, per capita GDP is $1,900. Only 55% have mobile phones”. What a sad place to live in, only 55% have mobile phones! Or what about Nepal, ranked as 93 in the Legatum Prosperity Index and also one of the saddest 20 countries, the caption quoted there was: “No basis for economic growth; very little internet connectivity, yet 96% feel hard work will pay off”. Very little internet connectivity, now that is a truly sad country. No points for the 96% that are positive and feel that hard work will pay off!
Not all Happiness and Prosperity Index’s are equal. The Happy Planet Index (HPI) ranked Costa Rica as number one and more surprisingly Nicaragua (according to the U.S. Department of State is second-poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere) also ranked high in the HPI Index. So does financial prosperity equal happiness? No, however in the developed countries it does give you a better lifestyle in regard to Medical services, housing and security.
Reflecting on time gone past and oh how life was so simple then. The reality is, that life was just as challenging then as it is now. The only difference is that we have managed to jump those hurdles in the past and moved forward; hence on reflection it all seems so simple.
I am stuck in my solitude, not knowing which door to open. Some people may consider my solitude as depression and in some ways it is, but there is no hopelessness, just the apprehension of opening that door; the right door, the door that will lead to happiness. And the question arises again…… what will make me happy? It’s not easy being truly honest with oneself, I guess because you know that there are consequences to any path that you take.
Maybe my biggest challenge is to overcome trying to keep everyone happy because in the end there is always a looser, no matter which path you take. Or maybe it is just to accept that there is always a loss and that’s the only way life can move forward……. hmmm
My solitude reminds me of an old joke:-
How do you confuse an Irishman? Put him in a barrel and tell him to piss in the corner! LOL (Sorry Irish 
)
Until next time,
Laugh, Love & Live!
AlexE
THE ENIGMA OF LIFE 
http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2012/07/stiglitz_on_ine.html
You may enjoy this talk on the economics of inequality… it relates back to happiness.
🙂
Thanks for the link. I particularly found this statement on Moral Sentiment so profoundly true.
The Theory of Moral Sentiments,by Adam Smith. Paragraph III.I.8:
Man naturally desires, not only to be loved, but to be lovely; or to be that thing which is the natural and proper object of love. He naturally dreads, not only to be hated, but to be hateful; or to be that thing which is the natural and proper object of hatred. He desires, not only praise, but praiseworthiness; or to be that thing which, though it should be praised by nobody, is, however, the natural and proper object of praise. He dreads, not only blame, but blame-worthiness; or to be that thing which, though it should be blamed by nobody, is, however, the natural and proper object of blame.