A Little Bit of Everything

Another interesting question answered:

Can money buy happiness?

First off I must state a fact that I hope most of you know already, since I have been almost blunt about it. I am a Christian. This fact is innumerably important to this blog. First of all, for all those raised in a church you know that generally it is taught that money doesn't equal happiness. This said my next sentence should be found very odd coming from me but I promise it will all make sense, just make sure that if you're just browsing through the posts that you at least read two paragraphs after the next sentence so I don't sound hyprocitical.

I believe money buys happiness.

You heard me right. I really think it does.

I think happiness can be bought, bribed, traded, manipulated, and imagined. I believe it can come in shiny packages and new cars. I think it can be discovered on mountains with goats and at fancy parties in the cites. This being said let me explain how I believe this.

I think that everyone is answering the wrong question. The question is right, what people think of as happiness is wrong. Happiness is fleeting. It's an emotion and emotions constantly change. I can be happy for a second and then watch "Pay it Forward" and be completely sad the next. Happiness is cheap. It's basically worthless. It is worthless because it can't be relied upon. You can't lean on it for support, it will fall from beneath you. What is cheap can be bought cheaply, and therefor money CAN buy happiness. Happiness is like sadness, no one can expect to feel it forever. And like sadness has a name for its extended condition (depression) happiness does too. Joy.

And joy CANNOT be bought.

This morning I arrived at church expecting the norm in youth- meet and greet, opening words, worship, prayer, small groups, socializing until second service. Instead I arrive and we start early, skipping all of that and getting to work preparing for Thanksgiving baskets. This in tales taking 25 50 pound bags of potatoes and making them into 250 5 pound bags of potatoes (ah! the smell of potatoes in the morning!)including sorting out the rotten ones, taking 10 boxes of pears, unwrapping them from leaves and sorting them as well,and opening up and taping together 200 cardboard boxes. It was a ton of work and I was exhausted afterward (which isn't great because I had to work as a Sunday School teacher second service). Why do I mention this? The reason is simple- I was unhappy doing this work. But the entire time I was smiling and singing because while it wasn't happy work I was joyful. And that makes all the difference in the world. Living in poverty (cause according to the government [ha!] I am) is not about being happy. Is my family happy being poor and worrying about the next meal? Of course not! But what we have can be mistaken very easily for happiness, we have joy. And joy doesn't come from a paycheck.

Joy comes from life and in my humble opinion, God.

Ironically, I have been listening to music this whole time without actually listening (you all know how that works) and paused just to listen for a second as a break. I happened to hear a song(unintentionally) that is about this. Here is a portion of the lyrics:

"Imagine this... I get a phone call from Regis
He says, "Do you want to be a millionaire?"
They put me on the show and I win with two lifelines to spare
Now picture this... I act like nothing ever happened
And bury all the money in a coffee can

Well, I've been given more than Regis ever gave away
I was a dead man who was called to come out of my grave
And I think it's time for makin' some noise

Wake the neighbors, get the word out
Come on... crank up the music... climb a mountain and shout
This is life we've been given made to be lived out
So la la la la live out loud"

That's joy. Joy comes from life. Life with friends and family, with really living and doing what you enjoy. Those kind of things can't be bought in their true form. Maybe burying a million dollars is ridicules, but that money out of the ground won't buy the kind of joy mentioned later in the song.

Maybe people who are rich and famous are happy when they can "jet off to go ski in Switzerland or to sun in the South of France on the spur of the moment for Winter Break" but it doesn't bring them joy. Just as having no money can make a person sad but it won't make them permanently unhappy or depressed. So yah, money can buy happiness but is happiness what we search for? I would argue anyone that we want happiness. We don't want happiness because we want something more solid than that, more promising, we want joy. And joy doesn't come from an I-pod or counting money (even though it seems Noam might argue that). I am not always happy, I worry too much about money to be happy even when I receive things but I can always have a smile on my face because I have joy.

I think that each person should try and find the joy in their life. Hopefully John would find more than happiness on his mountain with his goat and hopefully each of can find our mountain. I think each of us has a point in our life where we want to be like Thoreau and abandon materialism and find it impossible but I doubt that everyone could live like that happily or joyfully. I find my joy in life, in family, in Christ but to each his own. I would say that we should all buy goats and then give up money (that temporary happiness) and move onto John's mountain but then I think it would ruin the mountain for John so I say live where you want to be, be who you want to be, and don't follow the world's lie that money can buy everything that you need. Money will bring you happiness, sure, it will get you a nice house, and remove some worry, it may get you nice get-a-ways to relax in and a nice college to further your life in but unless that is truly what you want to do with your life- unless that is your complete purpose in life- it won't buy you joy.

So yah, money can buy you happiness but that's not what life is all about.