A Meaningful Life with Suffering is Better than an Easy, Happy Life

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Meaning is Treasurable and Fulfilling
Suffering Brings About Meaning
Happiness is Superficial
Happiness is Fragile and Risky
Conclusion
Works Cited

Introduction

Man’s pursuit for happiness often comes with distraction from achieving the core purpose of living. The prevailing social, economic and political world systems have corrupted man’s understanding of the meaning of life. A good number of people have lived through tough times and overcome this misunderstanding.

Suffering has added meaning to their lives. Dr. Viktor Frankl is one such person, who while living in dehumanizing conditions of a Nazi concentration camp, found the true meaning of his life through suffering (Frankl 94). It is better to have a tough life that is meaningful than to lead an easy, happy life.

Meaning is Treasurable and Fulfilling

While happiness is a popularized and volatile mental state, finding meaningfulness in life is a rare treasure. The value of having meaningfulness in one’s life lasts for as long as one lives but happiness is fragile. The fragility of happiness emanates from its dependency on factors beyond its own control.

Sometimes such factors are also beyond the control of the person. It is because of the enduring nature of meaning, that one would be better off pursuing it than being just happy. People who lead an easy and happy life often have a stronger connection to the present than to the future. The connection is mainly made up of one’s strong link to the material world and self-appraisal. The stability of this mental state lies in one’s capability to maintain a descent self, to hold to the material things or both.

Suffering Brings About Meaning

Humiliation and calamities are examples of occurrences, which can demote one from a state of happiness, to one that he or she does not understand. Leading a meaningful life, on the other hand, connects one’s past to his or her future through the present (Smith 1). The constructive nature of meaning does not allow omission of one’s past or future from the purposefulness that it renders to life. People who are compelled by anything to find such meaning are often saddened by realities of nature.

This saddening is perfectly normal but it is often patched up in pursuit for happiness. The need to patch things up is an evasive approach to reality, and this is how most happiness states are achieved. The approach disconnects man from his intended position in nature, which is to be an intelligent solution provider to issues. We often find ourselves trading this responsibility for self-satisfaction.

Happiness is Superficial

Happiness in its actuality, is a superficial expression. Only a logical reason for being happy adds value to it (Smith 1). The basis of some people’s happiness is contestable, as it is for all sadists. A happy life is one that is either full of appreciation, comfort or lavishness. When some or all of these things are taken away, suffering comes in and the ability to endure it becomes a fate determinant.

People who endure suffering transcend their minds from the superficiality of happiness towards self-actualization. At this point one is compelled to get to the true meaning of life, and realize that this is the primary purpose of living. The meaning that is found is specific to one’s life only (Frankl 105). The uniqueness and individuality of each person offers man a purpose to live through dehumanizing conditions.

On realizing his inability to leave behind a duplicate of himself, man is compelled to explore his potential (Smith 1). Suffering often comes in form of threats of extermination through distress, pain or humiliation. The true nature of such extermination is permanent disconnection from the things or people that one treasures. It makes one to realize the worth that lies in simple things, as well as the importance of the people around him (Smith 1).

A meaningful Life is Pursuable in Suffering

The importance of incorporating meaning in life is portrayed in the reception that Frankl’s book has been given worldwide. The book’s feverish sales in millions of copies demonstrates a strong connection that people have to suffering and search for meaning (Smith 1).

Frankl stresses on meaningfulness of life, value in suffering, as well as personal responsibility to things that are beyond man’s control. Happiness has become a cultural demand globally. As a result of this globalization of happiness, most people fail to realize that it cannot be created. It is through living a meaningful life, which focusses on suffering that happiness ensues as a side-effect of such an endeavor (Frankl 103). One should therefore never make happiness become a central agenda for living because it cannot be pursued.

Happiness is Fragile and Risky

Happiness is a risky endeavor. Its building blocks are usually fragile and slight changes in one’s status quo may lead to sudden loss of one’s self. People who are used to being happy have the potential of becoming self-destructive in the event of slight oppression or loss of treasured things (Baumeister 11).

The ability to invoke self-destruction depicts the level of selfishness that lies in happiness. Happiness would rather destroy you than be separated from you. The trait can be seen in the tendency to hold on to things that are so dear to a happy person, even when letting them go could mean saving another person’s life. Suffering on the other hand, strengthens and prepares one against calamities, making them become easy in taking some substantial level of risk to help other people.

Conclusion

In conclusion, suffering brings meaning to life and this meaning surpasses the superficial benefits that happiness renders to any life. Happiness does not add to the core purpose of living, instead it often benefits from realizing it. People should therefore strive to realize what they stand for instead of pursuing happiness.

Works Cited

Baumeister, Roy F. The Psychology of Irrationality: Why People Make Foolish Self-Defeating Choices. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003. 11. Print.

Frankl, Viktor. Man’s Search for Meaning. 4th edn. Boston: Beacon Press, 1992. 94-105. Print.

Smith, Emily. “There’s More to Life than Being Happy.” The Atlantic. 2013. Web.

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