The Pursuit of Measuring Happiness

“I swear you must have a rainbow shooting out of your ass, you’re so bright and shiny and wonderful.”
― Kate Rockland, Falling Is Like This

I didn’t read this book, and I don’t recall where/when I first heard this quote, or it paraphrased, but it was one of the inspirations for this piece. So contemptuous, I love it. I think/hope we all want everyone to be happy, but there seems to be a limit to what we’ll tolerate in public. You know what I’m talking about. Those people so annoyingly happy that they invoke the sentiments we see above.

Doesn’t it seem like we have an unhealthy obsession with happiness? Studies abound on what it is, what it means, how to find it, on and on and on…but what’s the effect of this hyper-focus on qualifying and quantifying happiness? It makes it a constant goal that can be commodified and peddled by anyone who appears to have mastered the elusive or fleeting feeling. To make matters worse (for those seeking, it makes it better for those selling), the mere act of analyzing our happiness engages the observer effect, whereby an observed system is disturbed by the act of observation. Much like the use of the gauge releases air when checking a tire, our being conditioned to constantly evaluate our happiness only causes us to yearn for more.

That’s what this piece means to me. Perhaps Henry David Thoreau put it more poetically, “Happiness is like a butterfly, the more you chase it, the more it will evade you, but if you notice the other things around you, it will gently come and sit on your shoulder.” Either way, stop TRYING to be so damn happy and you’ll have rainbows shooting out your ass before you know it.

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