Happiness

I think for humans to be happy, we need to create meaning. Lack of meaning can make us unhappy. Creating gives us meaning and therefore creating can make us happy. If that be running a club, being part of a company, thinking of solutions to problems, teaching, or training....etc. I think creativity is key, or at least being able to see the fruits of your labour in full fruition. Isn't this what Marx is talking about when he talks of alienation?

Anyway, this meaning may be subjective, but it is all we can know. Camus pointed out that even if there was ultimate and objective meaning we could never know it, and the realisation of this absurd state of affairs could 'strike any man in the face on any street corner'. I like the idea that people can be walking around and then suddenly be struck in the face with a sudden sense of the meaningless of it all. I would hope their face would look something like this... http://www.reactiongifs.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/imgur_9CUtI.gif

Honestly, though, I think this realisation can be quite freeing. If ever I'm feeling really tense about stuff I like to remind myself of how I am just a collection of atoms on a random rock in a universe that is bigger and older than I can even comprehend, and that my existence is a blip and eventually all of human history will be completely and inevitably destroyed forever (assuming a presentist theory of time) and the universe will continue just as it has always done. If I get this job or this grade or I sleep with this person or I go to Uruguay or go to the pub tonight or I tell someone what a dick they are or I buy this sandwich or I die tomorrow, ultimately and objectively it doesn't matter. It is all meaningless and realising this makes me feel calm and free.

My friend has a tattoo on his arm that reads, 'I too shall cease to be', which he says that he got to remind him of the very insignificance of his own existence and, as sayings on ones arms go, I think it is rather good. I once had a watch which had Sisyphus pushing a rock as a second hand, that served very much the same purpose.

I feel like I'm just writing what sounds like some airy-fairy pseudo philosophy, but I do honestly think the key to being happy as a human is to find subjective meaning through creating (or for want of a better word, a job - or actually maybe occupation is better, something to occupy yourself) and also through relationships with other people.

Friends and creative occupations. I believe this is the key.