YOUR SAY |
HAPPINESS: A PERSONAL REFLECTION By Hadje Sadje
Happy? My partner asked me when I finally see the ‘See-through Church’ or ‘Doorkijkkerk’ of Borgloon, Belgium. But why I should be happy? In 2011, the two young Belgian architects Pieterjan Gijs and Arnout Van Vaerenberg designed and constructed the Doorkijkkerk (Argyriades, 2011). It was built as a traditional local chapel but, uniquely, a transparent church. It is made of steel (100 steel sheets) weighing a colossal 30 tons (Argyriades, 2011). Purposively, Gijs and Van Vaerenberg separated the 100 steel sheets so that the landscape around can always been visible, from inside and outside---BRILLIANT! (Argyriades, 2011). Perhaps, for my partner this is the reason why I should be happy, but deep inside me, I am searching for happiness, not just being happy. I believe that is not what happiness means. I felt this battle in me. Of course, it is very important to live in the present moment, and be happy every single day. However, many positive psychologists argue, being happy is not the same as happiness. For them, being happy is a product of short-term events (momentarily), while happiness is a product of meaningful life events (Goodman et al., 2017). When we travelled back home, I was remained haunted by the questions, what is happiness? how can I find happiness? and what is happiness means in the age of covid? As might be expected, various people response to these questions in different ways. Yet, many people find it hard to realise happiness in troubling times, for example, in the midst of COVID-19. Today, an extreme preoccupation with happiness. In fact, happiness became a philosophical, psychological, and cultural obsessions (Gregoire, 2014). This become evident that there are hundreds, even thousands of self-help books that will help people find happiness (de Merwe and Johannes, 292-293). While there are many different understandings of happiness, happiness is generally linked to experiencing more positive feelings than negative. For many, it is difficult to experience authentic happiness while people experiencing anxious and no peace. In short, happiness with sadness and pains has no meaning. Conventionally, happiness constitute feeling of joy (personal strivings), satisfaction, contentment (materialistic and non-materialistic aspirations), and fulfilment (Nesse and Williams, 1994). For example, many people believe that if a person spend more time with friends and family, it makes a big difference to how happy we feel. Others argue that if a person attained his/her dream, one can live a truly happy life. While some believe that people have to be rich and famous to become happy in life. Or perhaps, millennials assert that traveling around the world makes them a happier person. But when a person defined happiness too individualistic (“I don’t give a shit” or “I don’t give a fuck”) over sense of community, I believe, it leads to a path of self-destruction. In his book titled, Happiness (2019), a French philosopher, Alain Badiou problematises the concept of happiness. For Badiou, our concept of happiness must seek to move away from egoistic, capitalistic, and economic functions. For Badiou, happiness is not about getting what you want, everything is perfect, and pleasurable. Badiou argues that happiness is risk-taking experience because it asks how to change the world (89). It is a risky task, as Badiou argues, that may lead to social change or social transformation (41-42). Badiou writes, ‘...happiness is not the possibility of the satisfaction of everyone. Happiness is not the abstract idea of a good society in which everyone is satisfied’ (89). Happiness is about more than individual attainment and pleasure. In other words, people are more likely to become unhappy because injustices everywhere. Happiness arises to challenge innumerable injustices against the poor, weak, and marginalised groups. More importantly, happiness sought to promote the service to others, public commitment, and common good---Change the World.
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INSiGHT | April 2021
