Hi QP...I thought it was about time I came around and dug through your port to see if there was anything that piqued my interest...and I found this item.
I must admit, I love a good 'verses' challenge. I have delved into quite a few myself, and found your question/comparison of happiness vs joy rather intriguing, and is something I have never thought about before. And that's saying something because I tend to do a lot of pondering.
When I read that you suffer from depression, my first reaction was to say, "Oh, I'm sorry that you...blah blah." But I know how impotent that is. I imagine saying that would do very little to change anything or make you feel better about things. So, instead of offering worthless words that I'm sure you don't want or need (I hope I have that right), or worse, appear to be trying to help, I will, at a later date, do some research and learn more about what depression is and some of its causes. Ignorance is no excuse when it comes to, at the very least, trying to understand what others are going through.
Happiness vs joy is something I can tackle right now, and even though before I read your piece, I simply thought of them as synonyms, now I can see the not-so-subtle difference between the two. I confess, I didn't click on the links, not because I am not interested, but because it is almost 11:00 pm and I am a little too tired for any more reading today.
The concept that these two emotions are very different will definitely have me thinking over the coming days. I love human nature...human beings though, not so much. I say that because like your husband, cynicism rules...although, I am trying to address this negativity in order to find some middle ground between that and eternal optimism, which I think would be just as annoying.
Therefore, I can only comment on the two emotions, joy and happiness, from my own perspective...which, fortunately for me, does not involve any chemical imbalance...at least, none that I am aware of.
So happiness and joy (or sadness and despair) are, by and large, a choice I make. I can choose to be sad if things don't go my way, or I can be pragmatic and try to take something away from the event or experience that may benefit me in the future...but still, I won't likely be overjoyed about it. Nevertheless, if I can accept the situation, I might still be 'reasonably' happy.
I guess other words that might be associated with, and make the meaning more determined would be, "In general, I am happy." Saying, "In general, I am joyous", sounds wrong. It's almost like happiness is a watered-down version of joy in that context.
I like reading things that challenge my thought processes, so thank you for writing this piece and pointing out some of the differences between these two emotions...and also, thank you for having the courage to speak about depression and how it has affected your life.
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