Day 3 - Right to Happiness

Modern media has expressed values which demand an extreme diversity in relationships, beliefs, and focuses in life. Although rich and diverse, this extreme variety could lead to contradicting values that harm a person's well-being and moral value. But who can draw the line between what values are harmful or not? Whether the values are harmful or not, the question in C.S Lewis' article "Have no right to happiness" poses the question: do all humans deserve the right to happiness? To further clarify, we humans all have a right to happiness. The question is, however, on what basis should we pursue such happiness?

Mr. A and Mrs. B in the article portray a shallow sense of happiness; their basis on the pursuit of happiness seems to be their emotional state. To maintain their emotional contentment, they must restlessly seek further peace by abandoning all their past connections and responsibilities. Although there is nothing wrong with seeking emotional peace, it seems to be immoral that their definition of "happiness" is correlated to emotional, materialistic things, which leads them to seek only those things.

"A man has a right to happiness," Mr. A states in the essay. Happiness? Who could ever argue against a man's right to happiness? Although every man/woman does has a right to happiness, it is important to look deeper into the definition of "happiness." As stated in paragraph 1, it is important to look at the basis in which people pursue happiness, but also important to look into the meaning of happiness. As diverse individuals within a diverse community, we all have different views on what happiness is. I, for instance, define happiness as Korean food, God, and Pokemon. So from this example you can perceive that happiness ranges from temporary things to more legitimate, lasting things. Happiness can mean the fulfillment of one's mind, soul, or body. It can also mean a completion of an event, work, or action. It can mean something beyond the physical realm - something abstract, beautiful, and unthinkable. The concept of happiness, however different, is deeply embedded within each and every one of our minds.

Now that the general definition of happiness has been addressed, we would usually focus on how such happiness is applied to the Christian, moral way of pursuing happiness. But this time it is different. C.S Lewis states something that totally goes beyond our expectations on what happiness means. In the article, C.S Lewis states that happiness does not only relate to lovey, joyful, bright, smiley things. Martyrs, missionaries, and other Christians oppressed because of their faith do not usually experience the same surge of physical or mental joy we people go through. Through constant oppression, pain, and hopelessness on a daily basis, it is not possible to live by the emotional state of happiness day by day. Instead, they must dwell in a more secure, concrete source of happiness; something that goes beyond our finite selves - God. We Christians who are not engaged in such intense missionary activities all around the world do not have the urge to devote our happiness to God, because of the visible forms of "entertainment" that surround us and tempt us.
Pursuing our happiness to satisfy our never-ending hunger cannot be relieved by anything in the world. We must remember to focus on the single, divine entity that surrounds us, guides us, and leads us on to the bright future.