The Happiness Industry - The Hoax?
Etymologically
happiness is by chance - happenstance - outside in. In Judaism - it is a
stretch to say there is even a word for happiness. The word - simcha - means -
joy - INside out. And attempts to re-translate the hebrew meaning glad and
rejoice into a word for happiness is really revisionism.
The
point - trying to nail down the happiness industry - starts with a definition -
that one can infer - or see, feel, touch or smell - and they avoid it....
When
'happiness is outside in' - it is usually a sensation - that typically requires
higher and higher dosages to palliate for 'an altered'
state - rather than an 'altared' state.
The
closest is 'flow' which is confused with happiness. Flow per Csikszentmihalyl
by example is where stimulation meets skill and one looks up and it is 3 hours
later and where did the time go
Thus,
simcha - and while I have great respect for the works of Dennis Prager - is not
happiness nor is the Hebrew word for glad and rejoice meant to mean
happiness-and neither is Simcha meant to mean happiness. The Hebrew for glad
and or rejoice are INside out states not a function of outside in
In ENOUGH
Jewish Personal Financial Planning which I did from 1977 for 20
years as a fee only planner and now as an author (over 40 years) --- is
"healing personal financial anxiety, puttin' money in its place, to
transcend- elevate to one's assignment - significance - what one is meant to do
- meant to be --- "aligning means with meaning"" And that's an
INside out job - that may - I say may - create a state of simcha that's less
prone to the slings and arrows of life outside in.
Note
most of the happiness industry is just a repackaging of the self esteem
business (again having lost steam and probably they stocked out of
participation trophies)
Assumptions
make an ass out of you and me - as the saying goes. Nail down the definition of
happiness - and typically one gets the academic or sage on the stage (but not
guide by the side) two step.
Finally
per Mussar teaching in Judaism for example - there is the concept of equanimity
- meaning 'rising above the good and the bad' - rather than happiness as
an ideal trait.
All
the aforementioned said and sans The Disney Sisyphusian 'happily ever after' -
comes from one who only plays a rabbi on tv (I couldn't get the Cigna gig).
PS I
named one of my K9 Chavers (friends) of the Soul - Simcha - for 19th century Rabbi
Simcha Bunim who said that 'you are a speck of dust, and yet the world was
created for you.' And this Simcha, a black male standard poodle, had 29 gran
mal seizures in 13 months - 4 on Rosh Hashanah in 45 minutes when I let him
proceed to Olam Haba - taught me 'when you must, you can; when you can you
must.'
To
which--- It is said that a man complained to a Rabbi about how harsh difficult
terrible this world is. The Rabbi said, yes, but there will plenty of
tranquility in the world to come (olam haba). Not satisfied, the man called on
Hashem (God) with the same complaint - how terrible, tough, challenging etc
this world was asking God -- can't you send someone to fix this world?
To
which Hashem responded, 'I did. I sent you.'
When
you must you can - when you can you must - ..... align means with meaning -
INside out – and therein is a modicum of simcha.
