One of my best friends is really into quotes. When she's upset, its the only thing that makes her feel better. A few days ago, this particular friend was very upset. I'm not all that into quotes, but being a good friend, I bombed her with inspirational quotes from people around the world. While I was searching for these words of wisdom, I actually found one that made me stop and think. The quote read, "Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence". Now sure it got me thinking and all, but who said it? Some random nutjob? It was actually Aristotle. By this point I'm impressed and intrigued.
Then I thought, why on earth do we do half this things we do?! Most of our actions don't make us happy. Maybe half do, if you're lucky. So why aren't we extremely selfish? Always do what brings us joy, even if it hurts other people? Frankly, it's logical. Mean, sure, but logical. Then I realized why we put ourselves through pain. We do it to make the people we love and care about happy. Love, no matter what form it's in, tends to make life complicated. It would be smart to accept that fact and move on. So we make ourselves unhappy, to make the people we love happy. Fine, I can handle that. Then, yet another quote struck me: "Love is when the other person's happiness is more important than your own".
That is slightly different than my last thought. It's one thing to make yourself unhappy for someone you love, but is it necessary to put another person's happiness before yours in order to love them? I don't know the answer to this, but it's something that really made me stop and think. How do you know you love someone? Just because you're blood related to them doesn't mean you love them right? So if my third cousins' happiness doesn't come quite before my own, does it mean I don't love them? We're family, so I must love them right? Or maybe the quote is referencing romantic love. That would make more sense in some ways. It also might not. My parents' happiness is more important to me than my own. My best friends' happiness is more important to me than my own. My brother's happiness is more important to me than my own. That doesn't mean i love them romantically, but I'm sure I love them. I still don't know the answer to this question, and I don't expect anybody to find the answer anytime soon. It's a question that I'm conscious and aware of now though.
No comments:
Post a Comment