or, You Have Issues
I have to say this: If you react to "go ahead, be happy!" the same way I would react to "go ahead, molest children!" YOU. HAVE. ISSUES.
In fact, you probably have anhedonia, the inability to gain pleasure from enjoyable experiences. This is a serious psychiatric condition. If you find yourself unable to obtain any pleasure at all from experiences that you previously found enjoyable, please get help.
I suspect that anhedonia is the cause of this:
Given this, you can understand my struggle with the “pursuit of happiness” made famous by the authors of the Declaration of Independence. For me this phrase has carried hedonistic baggage. It smacks of self-gratification, or in the words of Francis Schaeffer, “personal peace and prosperity.” What exactly did Jefferson, Adams and Franklin have in mind when they penned these famous words?
One of the reasons I can maintain the ability to be happy in the midst of so much physical suffering is a scene I witnessed in high school. My high school boyfriend's mother died, and after the funeral, my boyfriend, his sister, a few other family members and myself stood in front of the church and they all told stories about his mother. The older relatives told stories from their youths, the younger from much more recently. I found myself shocked to realize we were all laughing. The stories were funny (his mother was quite the character), but how could everyone be laughing mere minutes after mourning her loss?
Then I realized something: life is for the living. And the living laugh. The living feel joy, experience happiness, and more than that, the living seek it out. Even in the midst of tragedy, humans can find happiness and laughter.
Find the joy, my friends. It's what life is for.
