Happiness Part II

What I had intended to write about last night (till I got sidetracked) was about our own perceptions of happiness. I think know that everyone has different wants and needs and various quantities of those wants and needs to make them happy. But in essence, I think it's only human nature for someone to just want love, acceptance, appreciation.

A few days ago I received some horrible news about a former colleague of mine back in NZ who had died. He was only a bit older than I am, and he was said to have committed suicide. This came to me as shocking as I had worked with him before on many occasions and to me he was outgoing, sociable, very talkative, and very nice to hang out with. He was always good company during those long, boring hours at the uni gym I was working at, for which I was grateful because time could past really slowly in that country. Anyway, I cannot understand why he would choose to take his own life, but I guess still water really does run deep. Word on the street was he had gone through some personal issues with his family and his girlfriend, and he wasn't taking it too well. But even then, could a divorce and a break up really have that huge an impact on a 28 year old man who was fit and strong minded?

Maybe there was a lot more to the story than I know. Whatever the cause of his actions, I felt a huge sympathy for his family and friends. Whatever happened to him obviously robbed away his happiness in his life to the extent that he didn't want to live any more.

Which makes me ponder upon the lives of people I have crossed path with in my life who I know are not quite where they want to be. I have met people who felt like they were at their lowest point in life and were just pushing themselves along day after day for nothing in particular. To be honest, I cannot understand that. Why isn't LIFE itself not enough for them? There is so much for everyone to live for out there, so much to see, so much to do, life is like a giant theme park, where we wake up every day deciding for ourselves what we want to do with it. Time is our currency, more than the notes in our wallet, I think. I cannot comprehend why anyone would think why there isn't anything left to live for? There is ALWAYS something!

Perhaps I have been blessed with a good life so far, thus I see things the way I do. Now, more than ever, I hope that I can help change the lives of others. I don't know how, I just know I want to.