Happiness

February 21, 2015

Happiness

What is happiness? How can we find it? Can it be made? Happiness is a feeling, but not just a feeling. It is an emotion, an action and a smell. Grandma's house at Christmas time, swimming in the lake, or a cup of hot cocoa. It can be anything anyone wants it to be. Happiness lives inside everyone and can only be drawn out by something it truly loves. Happiness is unique to each individual, so, in full danger of sounding cliché, happiness is truly one of a kind.

How Can I Find It?

Memory is one of the main sources of happiness. When in need of a picker-upper, our minds naturally wander off to that favorite memory we hold deep in our heart. Maybe when you went out for ice cream last week, or when you received an A+ on that history test. The other main way that we find happiness is through jokes. A few great punch lines can be all people need to start rolling. Seriously, that interrupting cow joke STILL makes my sister chuckle. But what if there was another way to find happiness besides jokes and memories. What if there was a man-made ‘tool’, that could create happiness. What if there was a happy machine?

Wait... A "Happy Machine" ?

Well, there is such a thing. This machine has been around for hundreds of years. This machine, or rather, machines have millions of branches and trillions of leaves. While some of these have certainly proven to be more useful than others, they are being used everywhere, every minute, of every hour of every day. In schools and houses, farms and factories and most common of all: libraries.

Yes, embrace the shock that books are true happy machines. I know that you are probably worried about my mental health and I must confirm your doubts. I am crazy. But before you write books off as just collections of words on paper, give me a chance to speak for our wondrous, word-filled companions.

Proof

Everyone has a favorite book. Admit it. Whether you’re a reluctant reader or a full scale author, we all have that one worn-out page-turner that we always come back to for more. Even my two-year-old brother can occasionally be found in a corner with his giant copy of Goodnight ,Gorilla. And when you think about why you come back to your worn-out paperback, you’ll find one word waiting for you. I feel certain that that word is, in one form or another, a close relative of the five letter term that has inspired so many poems, stories, songs and even books themselves. Happy.

So now that you know where happiness lives, and how to embrace it, I will stop my rambling and let you go pursue the warm pages of you your most-loved Happy Machine.