More Philosophizing

I am not a philosopher and I know you're not paying good money to read this blog in order to read my two bit philosophy, but, for free, I will make one follow up comment to my previous post about things changing and then I'll get on to other things. It may seem despairing to realize, as I said in my previous post, that things always change and for the fortunate, that is our curse. It doesn't have to cause one to despair to realize that everything changes. It just reemphasizes the basic point that we have to live in the moment. Be happy now. I really do believe, as much as I believe anything, that to be happy or unhappy is a choice we make, not something that happens to us based on circumstances. I grew up with a religion that emphasized the importance of being unhappy now, so that we would eventually go to heaven where we would be happy forever. I believe that is a delusion that has caused great damage to many people.

Before I went to school, I thought I would be happy when I got to grade school, when I was in grade school, I thought I would be happy when I got to high school, when I was in high school, I envied college students, when I was in college, I couldn't wait to get out of college, when I was out of college, I thought getting married would make me happy, when I was married, I thought having children would make me happy, when I had children, I thought I would be happy when they grew up. Now that the kids are gone, I look back and think how happy I was when they were little. We always think that some other time is the time of our happiness, either in the future or in the past.

So, to add to my great pronouncement of last time that things always change, just let me add: Live in the moment; be happy now.