“Are you happy?”I asked my brother,Ian,one day.
“Yes. No. It depends on what you mean,”he said.
“Then tell me,”I said,“when was the last time you think you were happy?”
“April,1967,”he said.
It served me right for putting a serious question to someone who has joked his way through life. But Ian’s answer reminded me that when we think about happiness,we usually think of something extraordinary,a pinnacle(顶点)of delight. And those pinnacles seem to get rarer as we get older.
For a child,happiness is simple,such as playing with friends. In the teenage years,the concept of happiness changes. Suddenly it’s conditional on such things as excitement,love and popularity. For adults,happiness is complicated—love,marriage,responsibility and the risk of loss.
My dictionary defines happiness as“luck”or“fortune”,but I think a better definition of happiness is“the capacity(能力)for enjoyment”. The more we can enjoy what we have,the happier we are. It’s easy to overlook the pleasure we get from loving and being loved,the company of friends,the freedom to live where we please,and even good health.
I added up my little moments of pleasure yesterday. First I had my breakfast and enjoyed myself in the house. Then I spent an uninterrupted morning writing,which I love. When the kids came home,I enjoyed their noise after the quiet of the day.
You never know where happiness will turn up next. When I asked friends what makes them happy,some mentioned seemingly unimportant moments.“I hate shopping,”one friend said.“But there’s a shop assistant who always chats and really cheers me up.”Another friend loves the telephone.“Every time it rings,I know someone is thinking about me.”We all experience moments like these. Too few of us think of them as happiness.
Happiness isn’t about what happens to us;it’s about how we think of what happens to us. It’s not wishing for what we don’t have, but enjoying what we do have.
【小题1】It is widely thought that as one grows older,getting happiness seems to be________.A.out of the question |
B.quite easy |
C.a romantic dream |
D.more and more difficult |
A.don’t have our own houses to live in |
B.ignore the happiness that we have |
C.don’t know how to get happiness |
D.don’t notice others can cheer us up |
A.getting something extraordinary |
B.being able to enjoy what we have |
C.living a simple life |
D.pursuing things we don’t have |
A.My Happiness | B.Are You Happy? |
C.What Is Happiness? | D.Do What You Like |