What is it that makes us happy? What is it that sends us back to our childhood memories when the world was innocent? When we would blow bubbles or sit in the grass and pick flowers? Watch cartoons? What is it about a movie that soothes our soul with laughter? Is it that sense of hope that overwhelms our souls that makes us just feel good? What is it about dipping a cookie in an ice cold glass of milk that makes us smile? Getting the tips of our fingers just underneath the surface or when part of the cookie breaks off and sinks to the bottom? What is it about heating something up in the microwave just because were to lazy to cook it in the oven like the directions read? It never tastes as good, but for some reason...we keep doing it. What is so special about some of our memories, that no matter what, they are burned to the back of our minds like they were branded with a hot iron? Is it our lack of actually wanting to let go? With some memories all you can do is think back and realize and wonder. "How did that last?", "How did that happen? Our minds were different. Worlds not the same." Why is it that we keep those intimate things that were once so close to our hearts that do nothing but give us that constant reminder? Why is it that we play a song over and over again until it's the only thing we can dream, think, and hum for the next two days; only because it reminds us how happy or how miserable we were the first time we heard it and actually payed attention to it. Again is it a lack of wanting to let go. To seperate ourselves from our past? Some memories we find ourselves longing for. Wishing for that moment again. Those are the ones where we daydream for hours reminicing on the sights around us, smells, and tastes. Our fondest memories settle deep in our chest and hang heavy on our hearts. Do we hold on to them for the fear of forgetting? Or is it because they are what really make us happy?
"I’m sorry but I don’t want to be an Emperor – that’s not my business – I don’t want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone if possible, Jew, gentile, black man, white. We all want to help one another, human beings are like that. We all want to live by each other’s happiness, not by each other’s misery. We don’t want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is room for everyone and the earth is rich and can provide for everyone. The way of life can be free and beautiful. But we have lost the way. Greed has poisoned men’s souls – has barricaded the world with hate; has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed. We have developed speed but we have shut ourselves in: machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical, our cleverness hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little: More than machinery we need humanity; More than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost. The airplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in men, cries out for universal brotherhood for the unity of us all. Even now my voice is reaching millions throughout the world, millions of despairing men, women and little children, victims of a system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people. To those who can hear me I say “Do not despair”. The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed, the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress: the hate of men will pass and dictators die and the power they took from the people, will return to the people and so long as men die [now] liberty will never perish… Soldiers – don’t give yourselves to brutes, men who despise you and enslave you – who regiment your lives, tell you what to do, what to think and what to feel, who drill you, diet you, treat you as cattle, as cannon fodder. Don’t give yourselves to these unnatural men, machine men, with machine minds and machine hearts. You are not machines. You are not cattle. You are men. You have the love of humanity in your hearts. You don’t hate – only the unloved hate. Only the unloved and the unnatural. Soldiers – don’t fight for slavery, fight for liberty. In the seventeenth chapter of Saint Luke it is written ” the kingdom of God is within man ” – not one man, nor a group of men – but in all men – in you, the people. You the people have the power, the power to create machines, the power to create happiness. You the people have the power to make life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure. Then in the name of democracy let’s use that power – let us all unite. Let us fight for a new world, a decent world that will give men a chance to work, that will give you the future and old age and security. By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power, but they lie. They do not fulfil their promise, they never will. Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people. Now let us fight to fulfil that promise. Let us fight to free the world, to do away with national barriers, do away with greed, with hate and intolerance. Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men’s happiness. Soldiers – in the name of democracy, let us all unite!” Charlie Chaplin in 'The Great Dictator' (1940)
What is it that makes us happy?