I was just wondering if anyone else on here wondered the point to happiness

I mean time catches up to all of us and we all eventually die. so why be happy if it's just going to be taken away from us in the end?

hmmm random observation, but i've been thinking a lot about death and the point to life lately.

[mindwrench]

I remember happiness as being those little blocks of time where being alive was worth enduring all the bad times. I think the further and fewer those little escapes are, the perspective of them becomes skewed. Happiness to me is like a magnificent rose, which is surrounded by very long and sharp thorns with poison barbs,and a bed of broken glass beneath the plant. Reaching for happiness is to risk the disappointment of further injury. And partial or even temporary attainment of happiness throws us to the ground so hard when we lose it again. I can totally relate to questioning the very basis of this process.

I must not have given up completely on happiness though, I'm still here. And you are still here. And lots of us are still here. We must have some sliver of belief that it could be better some day.

[MtnTime2896]

Because at least you know you experienced it. At least, for only a little while, you felt like you had something to live for at some point in your life.

[Fuzzybear]

[Rohag]

A significant question...

My ability to feel, to experience happiness is impaired. I do not think of "happiness" as something to be sought. I either will or won't experience it in the course of living.

[Booh]

"Psychological researchers have, for years, distinguished between “life satisfaction,” or the overall assessment of your feelings and attitudes about your life at a particular point in time, from “subjective well-being,” which captures the actual feelings of happiness you have at the moment. The aptly-labeled phrase paradox of well-being describes a puzzling finding, long known about in the field of psychology and aging that older people express higher levels of subjective well-being despite the fact that, objectively, their life circumstances are less positive than are those of younger but often, unhappier, people." http://tinyurl.com/jurgmsd

When I searched Google about "the meaning of happiness," there were 51,300,000 hits. Individual and cultural differences abound. I would rather be more content with life than less. Pursuing my core values would help me be more content. One core value is to leave the world a bit better than I found it.

Death for me is no barrier to striving to live a life imbued with core values. Theists in particular have a vested interest in the afterlife.

Thanks to the OP for the complexity of the post.

[Unrigged64072835]

Happiness is so subjective and personal. I guess it matters to the point where one is content with what they have and then strive for what brings them meaning in their lives. I'm pretty content with the way things are now, though I don't know how much they'll change in the future.