The Paradox of Happiness

I was talking to a friend last night (huge surprise there), and the end of our conversation took an interesting turn. There is no need to go in to the particulars of the conversation, but just about the last thing that this friend said to me was to do "whatever makes you most happy. And results in the least chance of pain or hurt." I have not been able to stop thinking about this since last night. Here are some of my thoughts.

We live in a world full of opposition. If you add, it can be reversed by subtraction, multiplication by division. Even Newton understood the principle of opposition in his third law of motion which says that for each and every action there is an EQUAL and OPPOSITE reaction. Newton created his laws for motion... but truth is universal. I believe his principles can be applied to other aspects of life, and in this instance, happiness.

Many of the things we experience are relative. Having been raised LDS, I understand that opposition exists so that I can have experiences. Sorrow exists so I may experience joy, evil exists so that I can experience righteousness, and infirmity exists so that I can fully appreciate what it is like to be healthy. Without these varying states, life would be bland, boring, and not worth living. Continuing the pattern, it seems logical to assume that without painor the rist of pain, I could not experience happiness?

In considering both the law of opposition, and Newton's third law of motion (which if you think enough about it are actually the same thing) The only conclusion that I can come to is this: That whichever course of action I choose that results in greatest happiness for me, will also, by laws ordained of God, carry with it the greatest possibility for hurt and pain. The least amount of possible pain would then be obtained by making the choice that while still resulting in happiness, results in the least amount of happiness. I suppose that in theory there would be a neutral ground when a decision results in neither happiness or pain, but I do not believe such a thing exists.

I guess then that the thing to take into consideration is not the amount of happiness possible compared to the amount of pain possible because both extremes would be at the same but opposite ends of the same balance beam. The question then is if the possible happiness is worth the risk of experiencing the possible pain. My opinion is that most times, the risk or pain makes life far more worthwhile than living experiencing no happiness.