英语：浅谈追求幸福

Everybody

wants

to

be

happy,

but

few

of

us

seem

to

know

how

to

achieve

it,

writes AL Kennedy.

What

did

you

wish

for

when

the

bells

rang

and

the

year

turned?

I'd

imagine

happiness

may

have

crossed

your mind. It's

a popular

emotion.

The

United

States

Declaration

of

Independence

lists

only

three

inalienable

rights

-

life

itself,

liberty

to

appreciate that life and then happiness. Or rather there's life, then liberty and then the

pursuit of happiness.

But if happiness must be pursued, clearly it's not permanent - so when I'm happy I'm

basically just waiting to be sad. Which makes me feel powerless and therefore tense.

Awake at 03:00 - a setting within which good thoughts never happen, even on New

Year's morning - I do know that sabotaging my own happiness is an ungrateful form of

self-harm. Then again, it gets exhausting - waiting to be unhappy. So, my happiness

makes me tense, threatened and exhausted and… Oh great, now I'm miserable.

Of course, in the sane hours of daylight, I yearn for the mercy of happiness - if not

for myself then certainly for others. We live in austere times, every day we can see

streets, lives, faces, which are manifestly unhappy. If we're ill, or alone, on the brink,

then happiness seems like a bright room full of strangers - we can peer through the

window and see it, but never enter. We may desperately need the strength to pursue

happiness, to create, invent, or simply to endure - we may want to smile and watch

those we love smile, too. But lack of happiness, as a large body of research shows,

damages

our

mental

and

physical

health,

our

social

interactions

and

our

working

efficiency.

Misery

creates

more

misery,

it

cascades.

So,

no

wonder

we

pursue