happiness...

another thing that i was pondering: happiness. although many governments portray to have the best interests of people at their heart, i truly believe that the best that can be done for people is to provide them with the means to discover happiness. i wholeheartedly agree with our forefathers here in the US that "life, liberty and the persuit of happiness" are the basic rights.

i think many demand that everything be done for them, that the only thing that we have to do in life is to take the packaging off what we're given. but as trite as it sounds, i believe that the only way that we find happiness is by looking for it in the first place. there's not some vast checklist, containing items such as "buy a house", "travel once per year", "eat out once a week", "meet up with the family", etc. that can be prescibed to those wishing to be happy.

happiness is something that may change over time, maturing, or fluctuating. and it's something not to be left for the end, as there's no way to make up for lost time.

i was going to be apolitical for this time around, but this made me think of prop 8 in california, and while searching for "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" i stumbled across the following post which is far more eloquent than i could possibly be on this subject.

abraços,

beautiful afternoon

so i'm sitting here in red square, under a very warm september sun looking at mount rainier... it's amazingly beautiful here. and i'm heading out from seattle in a few days to head down to Brazil for one month. we'll probably end up moving to Brazil in a few years, but i'm sure i'll miss the mountains, and possibly even the rain here.

i guess i'm glad that i can least enjoy it. hopefully everyone else in the area is also enjoying the warm sun and beautiful weather.

i miss my wife, and i know that she lives for this type of weather, but since she's far away, she's not able to enjoy it. hopefully once she comes back she'll still catch some great weather here.