Only a fool can be happy. For happiness consists of two contradictory elements: contentment and pleasure. Enjoy pleasure and you have no contentment; be content and you have no pleasure. For this reason, happiness is conceivable only for those who enjoy themselves without thinking that they will always want more and thus be discontented, or for those who are content without thinking that they have no pleasure. Whoever reflects can never be happy, unless he is a fanatic and thus blinded…thus exercising control over his intelligence with his feelings, instead of the other way round. ~ Marcellus Emants.
I would never take advice from the (obviously foolish) happy person.
Instead, I'd take advice from a person who lives with PTSD or depression that performs optimally.
It's easy to talk about your belief in God and the importance of being positive when you're always in the sunshine. You've seldom had to work for anything in your life without some sort of handout or help that others could only dream of.
It's easy to go on social media and write:
“From $100,000 per month to $2.3 MILLION dollars per month.”
Yet not even have two sticks to rub together.
Manicured life stories are bred from insecurity.
Preach happiness and religiosity once everything you've ever believed in has been stripped from you. Once you've lost things that are truly important to you.
That is true power and ultimate freedom. When you have nothing, but feel as though you've got everything.
That is gratitude for life.
The fact that you can draw breath.
Everything else is secondary.
That's why I only listen to the ones who've entered battle. They are the only ones who can see the way the world truly works. Those are the ones who understand the true meaning of faith.
The soldiers of tomorrow are forged by their battles today.
