Van Vugt 1 David Van Vugt December 17, 2013 English 1100 Professor Lago The Universal Themes

s of Happiness and Sadness My truck has a tank full of gas. The radio is playing a good song. The day is beautiful and I am heading to my friends house to have some fun. Clearly, I am happy. Its freezing. Ice and snow are falling on my head. I am sitting twenty feet up in a tree. The only thing for miles around is forest. Surprisingly, I am happy. I am sitting at a desk hearing lectures about art and poetry. The professional in front of me brings clarity and enthusiasm into her presentation. This time, I am not so happy. In fact, I am feeling bored and wishing that I was either in my truck with a tank full of gas of that I was sitting in a tree freezing my toes off. Additionally, I am thinking about how surprising it really is that certain people would be repulsed at sitting a tree waiting for a deer to come by but would love the idea of hearing a presentation about art. They year is 1963. John F. Kennedy was just shot. Along with the entire nation, I am sure that he is dead. The year is 2013. I am standing at the scene of the World Trade Center and am thinking back to 2001 when someone told me that a plane flew into one of the Twin Towers. The entire setting is that of grief. A man in a wheelchair with a survivor flag sits next to me while reading the names of the thousands of lives lost. Among those names there is a flower, a passing reminder of the loved ones left behind who cannot forget what happened. While everyone has a different taste about happiness, most everyone would agree what sadness is. Death is synonymous with mourning and grief. Separation and loss are clear forms of sadness. I may have mixed feelings while listening to an art presentation; however, my feelings are equal with everyone else when loved ones become separated from us. Thus, while everyone differs on the sensation of happiness, all people would agree with what makes us truly sad.

Van Vugt 2 America itself is a microcosm of the goals of happy people in diverse world. Coming to the new land to build dreams and plant roots, men and women of countless backgrounds sought the happiness they could never attain in their original homes. Our First Amendment rights gives an idea of how each American is given the right to achieve happiness is their own way. My own fathers parents came to the New World directly after World War II in order to rebuild a life and plant roots for generations following. People live in different regions of the nation because of what makes them happy. Those who like the heat live in the South, and cold-weather people live in the north. The beauty of independent happiness is that people can live in different areas and still be happy. The reason for this is the different things that make different people happy. In her article on happiness, Jennifer Senior, an author for various accomplished magazines, writes that the pursuit of happiness was indeed at the heart of Americas conception (Senior 423). This pursuit of happiness is a clear indication of the variety of aims people attempt to reach when striving for happiness. Even within families, where ideas, ideologies, religions, and expressions often are unified, happiness adopts its different forms. Within my own family, where life is peaceful due to unified beliefs, I experience clashes with different ideas of happiness. I love hunting; however, my sister dislikes the idea of killing animals. The beauty of a system of clashing views of happiness, however, is that although she does not want to kill animals, that does not affect me and we have no qualms with each other. My state of contentedness does not affect hers, and life goes on. Happiness is so differentiated that it is a very difficult concept to measure felicity. Once a person attempts to theorize happiness, he will lose the feeling of happiness. The idea of an elevated status due to certain circumstances is better left as an abstract notion rather than a

Van Vugt 3 categorized conjecture. Senior seems fond of studies of happiness, such as positive psychology. Apparently, the field of studies regarding happiness is growing, with more people interested in learning more about happiness (Senior 423). I believe that the best way to learn about happiness is to be happy; in attempting to study an abstract notion, a student will lose the idea itself entirely. Senior herself, who writes often about happiness, claims that she is not a happy person (Senior 422-430). I do not worry about the science of happiness, and yet I experience contentedness very often and I consider myself an optimistic person. Maybe if people took time to figure out what made them cheerful then they would have no reason to study happiness and bore themselves with notions that dont make sense. Sadness on the other hand, is nearly black and white. Although I kill animals and eat them, I still am not happy when one of our pets die or if someone gets into an accident. This depth of grief is nearly universal; except for any disorderly people, separation, pain, and loss make us unhappy. Senior claims that a happiness test shows that the most unhappy place in America is Manhattan. This shows how unhappiness is universal. Once in a while, I feel obliged to traverse into the city with friends who want to see the sights. Being a man of simple taste, I would rather be hunting or fishing or hiking rather than walking through the streets of New York City. Clearly, if someone becomes unhappy due to something, it is for good reason and most people will also feel unhappy about it. Undoubtedly, unhappiness is drastically different that sadness. Any number of things can make a person unhappy; however, sadness results from more specific things. Those things which make us sad are universally known as sad. If a person is unhappy, he or she may be having a down day. However, if a person is sad, he or she has a reason to be so and deserves sympathy.

Van Vugt 4 My truck is running out of gas. Advertisements are on the radio. My friend is busy and cannot meet me. Up in my tree, not only my toes, but my fingers are freezing as well. I am convinced that there are no deer for ten miles of here. However, things are still looking up. After all, I dont have to go to any more art presentations. Christmas is coming up (and that makes everyone happy). There are still more happy things in my life than sad things, and although I can better associate with people when it comes to cheerlessness, I can be individualistic and care-free in my bliss. Pretty soon I will get paid and I can then fill my truck up with gas once more and turn up the radio. Life is good, and the older I get the more I realize to enjoy those individual moments in life that make me happy, even if everyone does not feel the same way. When times of grief come that shock a nation, or a community, or a family, it is up to the individuals to seek happiness in order to continue life.

Van Vugt 5 Works Cited Senior, Jennifer. Some Dark Thoughts on Happiness. Writing and Reading Across the Curriculum. Ed. Laurence Behrens and Leonard Rosen. Boston: Pearson, 2013. 422-430. Print.