First Draft: Essay #1 To Be Sad or Not to Be Sad, That is the Question Define happiness.

Is it, in Jennifer Seniors opinion a number you can assign to your state of being, or in Mark Kingwells words, trying to provide a one-sentence definition of it is always a mugs game (Kingwell 413)? Maybe it is something completely different that is woven into our genetics, earned by winning the lottery, or simply a written off as a side effect (Senior 429). Now define sadness. Something that occurs when a tragedy or accident touches our lives or what is felt when we are not able to associate with the feeling of happiness, for as Senior states, Theres an untold distance between knowing happiness and knowing about it (Senior 428). But if it is something that could be used to oppose happiness, why is it that the definition to happiness is so elusive and difficult to know while sadness has the characteristic of being tangible and able to control? Happiness may be something that cannot be controlled and is not necessary for everyday life, and if sadness is an emotion just like it, why should it be essential to have in life too? According to Kingwell, The studies, and others that demonstrated a correlation between dopamine levels in the brain and expressions of subjective satisfaction (Kingwell 414). This biological take on happiness shows that no matter how much a person tries, their level of happiness will be restricted. So, if high dopamine levels mean you experience a sense of happiness, then the conclusion that can be reached is low dopamine levels correspond with sadness. Even Jennifer Senior speaks of something called positive psychology, created by psychologist, Marin Seligman. This idea centers around the study of happiness (Senior 424). Not only does this have to do with the science (rather than the feeling) of happiness, but it also shows that there is no control over it. I, being a logical and scientific person, belief that this

conjecture is quite true. If it were not for the dopamine, then there would simply be no emotion at all. This chemical, and that all that happiness is, is what controls our happiness. Whether a person believes it is necessary or not is entirely up to them. Emotions are brought about by a biological reaction. Life would continue with or without them, therefore the necessity for it is completely null and void. Why should humans lives be controlled by something as irrational and unstable as a feeling of happiness or sadness? Philosophers, doctors, psychologists, and even everyday people will waste their lives away trying to discover a meaning to something so scientifically simple, that they will let the belief of emotions being a necessity destroy their mind.