Chris Jepson: This moment

“Happiness is not a goal; it is a by-product.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

“… and the pursuit of happiness.” That was an interesting concept when it was added to our U.S. Declaration of Independence in 1776. Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The way we think today is not the way our ancestors once considered life. If you had asked a European in the year 1066 what she considered the meaning of life, pursuit of happiness would not have passed her lips.

I confess to having a hard time appreciating this fact. Although we are physically pretty much the same human specimen we’ve been for the last, oh, 60,000 to 100,000 years, our approach to living has dramatically changed. As a species, pursuing happiness, per se, has not always held the importance we give it today. This begs all sorts of questions as to what our ancient ancestors were mentally absorbed in/with, but if scholars are to be believed our relentless pursuit of personal happiness is a relatively recent phenomenon.

There are many explanations for this. For more than 1,000 years Europe was held captive by the dogma of religion, of a ritualized belief system that did not consider the immediate happiness of humans at all relevant to daily life. Happiness, if discussed at all, was something for the next life.

Perhaps it is all semantics, that our ancestors were just as intrigued by life’s meaning(s), but just because “they” did not articulate happiness as a life goal, it was implied. Again, this idea is dismissed by scholars who argue we moderns do think differently about life. For example, a man working away on a 2500 B.C. Egyptian pyramid was not considering “life” the same way as a young dandy walking down a 1960s London backstreet. Perhaps that is an unfair comparison. Pick a Dionysian celebrant of 550 B.C. Athens and no matter how, hmmm, intoxicating the idea, those Greeks ultimately did not approach life they way we do.

I am intrigued by a line in Hermann Melville’s “Moby Dick” that suggests we (humanity) “lower the conceit of attainable felicity.” This is a heck of an idea. Lower the conceit of attainable happiness? Should we?

I’m from Sioux City, Iowa, as was Ann Landers, the advice columnist. She observed, “Every night can’t be Saturday Night in Sioux City.” I laugh at this comparison but I understand its meaning. We want life to be exciting. We want it all now. This is a modern perspective.

Ask yourself this question: to what end do I live? Whether or not God inspires you, chances are “pursuit of happiness” will figure high on your list of reasons for living (being). What percentage of your daily life should you be happy?

If you’re “happy” half the time, is that a respectable benchmark? Do you stay married, for example, if your daily happiness meter clocks in at 65 percent? If a third of the time your relationship “ain’t” so perfect, should you consider throwing in the towel? Many argue the grass is greener. What constitutes a fulfilling life and to what degree does one’s personal happiness figure into that equation?

Ultimately, we moderns think the way we do because that is our approach to life today. It will be different 1,000 years from now. I suggest one find meaning in his/her relationships with others and in the everyday ceremonies and practices of our times.

Think, judge, work, create, love, play, enjoy. There be happiness. Sometimes. I think Eleanor Roosevelt got it about right.