Previous Challenge Entry (Level 3 - Advanced)
Topic: The USA (01/08/09)
-
TITLE: Pursuing Happiness | Previous Challenge Entry
By Emily Gibson
01/12/09 -
LEAVE COMMENT ON ARTICLE
SEND A PRIVATE COMMENT
ADD TO MY FAVORITES
No one had ever said it out loud quite like that before. Historically there had been many a treatise written and wars won and lost about the right to live, and the right to freedom, but the right to pursue happiness? This was unprecedented-- and so utterly American...
Declaring it, however, is one thing. Making it so is quite another matter. Happiness eludes pursuit for most.
As American author Nathaniel Hawthorne, born on July 4, wrote:
"Happiness is like a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you."
We Americans are paying a steep price in our noisy and pushy pursuit of happiness, primarily in the form of owning more “stuff”. Perhaps it is the larger mortgage for that fancy house, the wider flat screen TV, the ideal antidepressant medication or biggest high from a recreational substance, or the best price of tank of gas that will carry us just a little farther down the road in our big trucks, RVs and SUVs. We try to buy our way to happiness with our charge cards maxed out and instead find ourselves in a deeper debt pit, putting our life and liberty in serious jeopardy.
We've gotten it all mixed up about where happiness is to be found.
There can be no true happiness until we ensure all Americans, indeed all world citizens, are given their best chance at Life itself--free of disease, of starvation, of homelessness, of genocide.
There can be no true happiness until we ensure all Americans, indeed all world citizens, know the freedom of true liberty-- free of fear, of tyranny, of oppression and poverty, of war and destruction.
Happiness is not purchased with plastic, but is bought through individual personal sacrifice, making sure others have what they need before we ourselves rest easy. It is the selfish pursuit of selflessness. That is exactly why it is so elusive because inalienable rights don't come naturally--they must be fought for, daily.
Much blood has been shed by Americans to guarantee Life and Liberty for others, including citizens of other countries. Has the price paid through the sacrifice of hundreds of thousands of lives resulted in more happiness for the rest of us? Perhaps we have it backward, as Hawthorne suggests. We can't pursue happiness; it will find us when we least expect it. Happiness will be in the quiet moment of realization that we are truly blessed by this incredible country in which to live and be free. We are given opportunity to raise our children in such a place, and we need to work harder than ever to make it even better.
At that moment, in a silent prayer of thanks to the Creator addressed so specifically in our Declaration of Independence, can we know the Happiness that pursues us when we live in a spirit of gratitude and sacrifice. This is the realization that, in our land, the weakest and most vulnerable have as great a chance as the strongest.
Happiness touches us, like a butterfly, in a moment of grace.
And only then, can we make it so.
The opinions expressed by authors may not necessarily reflect the opinion of FaithWriters.com.
Accept Jesus as Your Lord and Savior Right Now - CLICK HERE
JOIN US at FaithWriters for Free. Grow as a Writer and Spread the Gospel.
