Can anyone truly attain happiness?

Greetings, by the grace of God, it appears that I am able to write to you sooner than I had been expecting to do so notwithstanding the adversity I still face.  Today I wish to relate to you a story brought about by a well wisher.  One of the people presently engaged in my life said something to me which precipitated this article.  What was said to me by this person was “I just want for you to be happy”, instinctively and reflexively, I laughed at this notion and responded that I would take it under advisement.

For many years now I have come to realize that I will probably never be happy in this life because there have been so many injustices in my life which keep me an unwilling prisoner of the past.  Along the way I have shed many of the world teachings about happiness.  One of those is the misguided notion of what constitutes happiness and the belief that God promises us happiness.  God does not promise us happiness.  What God promises is peace of mind (his rest, where it is stated in the book of Genesis that “God rested”, this should be taken to mean that “God ceased considering” and this is what God promises us; even that we should cease considering the thoughts of the day’s evil which has been upon us that we may have more clarity of mind (in other words “peace of mind”).  This “peace of mind” is all I expect from life, not happiness.  When I hear the term happiness it brings to mind the writings of King Solomon in his Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes which say:

“So I returned, and considered all the oppressions that are done under the sun: and behold the tears of such as were oppressed, and they had no comforter; and on the side of their oppressors there was power; but they had not comforter.  Wherefore, I praised the dead which are already dead more than the living which are yet alive.  Yea, better is he than both they, which hath not yet been, who hath not seen the evil work that is done under the sun…Better is an handful of quietness, than both the hands full with travail and vexation of spirit” Ecclesiastes 4:1-3, 6.

When I look around me I see the tears of children who are beaten, molested, raped, starving, and enslaved in labor mills.  I see the children of Africa starved and uneducated by the millions, I see the children of China being put out into the streets to fend for themselves simply because they are female.  I see the children of South America and India enslaved in labor mills.  I see children all over the world dying from diseases which are yet to be named or already named for decades but no one to seek a cure, for there is no profit in it.  I see children being forced to carry guns into war to fight for a cause they do not understand and probably never will.  I see children and adults alike, dying in the name of God for religious beliefs not knowing that every religion has been co-opted by Satan’s minions as a means of dividing all God’s children one from another.  I hurt for these children and I cry thinking about all the pain and suffering they must endure.  I hurt for the women of abuse because we are raised to believe that it is the man’s place to have dominion of the woman.  I hurt for the men who believe child rearing should be left to women (many of whom know only how to punish rather than discipline which in turn, feeds upon itself and leads to reinforcement in the men they have raised to believe that it is right to turn punish the people in their lives because of perceived wrongs).  I have spoken to many men who believe in their heart that women want and expect men to be aggressive and violent toward others as a means of showing they can defend their families; these men all [mistakenly] claim that this sort of behavior is what defines a man.

How can I, or anyone be happy or expect to ever attain happiness when such is the way of the world?  Nay, all I can ever expect and pray is that God will provide me the peace of mind from the mental disquiet caused by such atrocities.

The other day I was walking across a bridge which traverses an expanse of river and from the corner of my eye did I espy an object which, as I past it by, at first tried to ignore yet could not bring myself to do so.  I turned around and went back for that object.  This was to me a symbolism of America and its citizens today.  It was a fallen American flag.  The type people purchase to help them celebrate the Fourth of July.  Looking at this flag, the symbol of the country I have loved from my youth, brought back memories of my time as an Air Force Honor Guard.  One time in particular was that of marching through the streets of Seattle, Washington in a parade celebration to celebrate Labor Day.  I recalled our unit dressed in our blues with white web belts and chrome helmets as we marched down the street, the crowd enthralled by our performance as we twirled our bayoneted rifles eventually tossing them into the air only to be caught by the airmen behind us.  Yes, we were a precision unit proud to display our passions for those civilians whose rights we were willing to die to protect.  We wanted, at least I had also hoped that those viewing us would be inspired to take up the call of what I believed (and still do believe) was an American Patriot’s duty to wit: to safeguard justice and freedom from those evil oppressors who would deny such to the people of, not just this country but this world.  I folded that miniature flag into the pyramidal shape I was taught as an Honor Guard and keep it as a reminder of what once was and what I pray may someday again be in my country, my land of liberty, my United States of America.

How can I advance the proposition that I can ever strive to attain happiness?  Many of you believe you are happy but are you really?  Or are you just pacified by the tangible things you have until your next mental disquiet only brought to rest by your next spending binge?  Would you hold it against me if I asked you to please spend on something other than yourself just once a month?  If you can find it in your hearts to forgive my impetuousness then please find a charitable cause and make a donation once a month to it.  Your donation does not have to be monetary it could be of labor.  Those of you who do not have the financial wherewithal or the time or ability to do so can still participate by visiting the website which the following link will take you to and just clicking on the “Click to Give” button.  It costs you nothing but a few seconds of your time and can do wonders for those who are less fortunate than we.  Despite its URL name there are six worthwhile causes which shall benefit from your simply clicking a button for each of those causes:

http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com/clickToGive/home.faces;jsessionid=CD0110B8A8D05DCAEEA99EFB945DE4E8.ctgProd04?siteId=1&link=ctg_ths_home_from_ars_home_sitenav

I shall end here.  May love and peace be yours always, amen.