Happiness and the Two Years Later

As you know, on occasion I will look at what I was writing on this date two and the one year ago.  I like to do this because it helps me to remember what was going on in my life at that time and maybe do a bit of analysis of how things have (or have not) changed.

Two years ago, I was writing part of my analysis of happiness. In this segment, I was talking about how you should do things on a daily basis to make yourself happy. I had bullet points and various ideas about what you should and shouldn't do. I talked about finding things that please various aspects of your being and practical ways to go about it.

The whole post had been inspired because I'd spent the weekend reading an analysis of The Foundation books and being deeply happy about that. You know, even two years later, I still count that as one of the funnest weekends I've had in years. And yes, I was just sitting here reading a discussion about a series of books. That is my kind of fun weekend though. Ahh, it still makes me happy.

A year ago, I was writing my own analysis of Puella Magi Madoka Magica.  It's hard to believe it's been a year since I wrote that. It really doesn't feel like it's been that long. In this portion of the analysis, I was talking about the emptiness of having only duty as a reason to live and how this affects not only the characters in the anime, but also women in real life.

The interesting thing about these two posts being set a year apart (and then me writing about them today) is that reading that analysis of Foundation was part of the reason I did the Madoka posts. I'd found so much enjoyment in reading the first that I knew I'd find a lot of enjoyment in writing the second.

The two posts really tie well together. In the happiness post from two years ago, I wrote about how important it is to have daily moments of pleasure. It's important to take time for yourself and really indulge for a bit. In the post from a year ago, I talked about how empty life is when that happiness, when having something to look forward to, is gone and all that is left is duty. It is an empty way to live, even if people seem to think it's the key to a fulfilling existence.

Recently I was reading some people's comments about works of creativity that concerned the topic of depression. One of the commenters had written something along the lines of 'this depressed woman is SO self-absorbed. She should go out and volunteer at a soup kitchen or something. Maybe then she'll realize how minor her problems are. Plus, she'll be helping others.'

Comments like this always make me very angry. For one thing, depression is not cured by 'perspective.' Just because other people's lives are less great than yours doesn't mean you will just automatically feel better about yours. It is also rooted in this idea that people (especially women) are better off if they will stop focusing on themselves and their own needs and instead focus on other people/causes/what have you.

So a year (and two) past these posts, I still stand by what I said in them. I still believe it's important to seek daily happiness and I still believe that if duty is all you have, your life is going to feel very meaningless. On a more fundamental level, I still firmly believe in taking the things that entertain you and bring you pleasure and looking at them from every angle. I believe in the examination of our art and our stories. It tells us more about the story and so much more about ourselves.