What does it take to be happy?

Ask someone you like or you know, or just almost anybody under 30, Where do they want to be in ten years. The answer you get is almost always similar; a spouse, some good kids, and in some ‘rebel’ kind of cases, the material wealth they’d want to accumulate, or the adventures they want to experience. Some people might say they’re different, but all of us are the same; the ones who really mean it are very few and very far apart, not to mention hard to find.

I thought I was different, and I don’t want money to be happy; some of it, to carry out my daily activities, would suffice. As you might have guessed, I was wrong. I don’t crave for wealth as much as people I meet every day, but yeah, there is some need (maybe whatever I went through in last four months is responsible, but that’s another story.)

I always wonder why people behave the way they do; running behind things they never need, going for something which they might never use, getting some stuff to improve their ‘image’… the list goes on. Its OK, they’re spending whatever they have on what they want. But the same people- seem to hardly consider other minute facets of life, ones which are important. What’s the use in getting an iPhone and not have any talktime in it? “I can listen to music all the time”, the guy says. OK smarthead, but you could have purchased an iPod if you wanted music, right? And there’d be enough left to recharge your phone several times over. 

The phone example was a bit off the topic, but it conveys the idea. If you don’t give importance to the ones which matter, accumulating stuff to put that into background doesn’t work. A line (two, in fact) from Erich Segal’s the class comes to mind:

 But unlike the rest of us, still in hot pursuit of frame and fortune, all Jason wants to do in life is to be a human being.

 And he’s far from certain he can do it.