We are, all of us, on a mission, looking for a purpose, a reason for being, trying to understand how we should best live.  We are driven by a fundamental desire to understand what it means to be human, whether we are fully able to articulate that desire or not.  We are searching for the good life, we want to be happy, to know deeply and absolutely what that means and how to live it. 

For myself, being a happier, more authentic person has become my most fundamental concern. What I mean by “authentic” is making sure that the life I live is representative of my “first self”—that my insides and outsides match. I haven't always lived this way, in fact, rarely have I. It requires that I look inside for truth, a truth centered somewhere between my heart and my stomach, rather than following the way of another or the dominant path.  This means that I must risk being misunderstood, criticized, rejected.  What I mean by “happy” is more difficult to define.  If one were to define the basic nature of happiness as a feeling of pleasure or contentment, I'd have to say that heroin addict’s are happy when they are high and somehow that is different than what I mean when I talk about happiness.   

© Salahub 2003