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Keith Higgins Lagos ENG 1100 17 September 2013 The Importance of Sadness Happiness and sadness each play a profound role in how we live our lives. While most people are concerned only with their happiness, it would be nothing without sadness to balance it out. Even the happiest person cannot claim that he or she never feels sadness. Like most things in life, there needs to be a balance of the two in order for there to be a healthy outlook on life. Sadness is necessary to us personally, socially, and as a species because of the sobering effect it has on our perspective in that it gives us a sense of realism in the world. The concept of sadness in and of itself proves to be a more real concept than happiness. People are able to define sadness much easier than happiness. Everybody feels sadness and the pain that comes along with it, which more often than not proves to be quite memorable. As opposed to happiness, sadness is identified practically with examples like grief over a person or physical pain. Unlike sadness, happiness proves to be an elusive and an especially intangible concept. Mark Kingwell describes the issue of describing happiness in his essay In Pursuit Of Happiness. In this essay he writes, The first thing to realize about happinessis that trying to provide a one sentence definition of it is always a mugs game (Kingwell 413). Within this sentence Kingwell is referring to the long and fruitless history of great philosophers and scientists who try to define happiness to no avail. In fact, Kingwell argues that the mere act of attempting to define happiness puts one closer away from the feeling of happiness and that this effort brings sadness. He even goes so far as to say asking about happiness can only result in

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unhappiness (Kingwell 414) and that happiness is the paragon of ineffability (414). But why is happiness such a hard idea to grasp and put into words? The more one tries to answer whether he is happy or not most often that person will only pile reasons why he is unhappy and will wind up sadder than he was before. John Stuart Mill once wrote Ask yourself whether or not you are happy and you will cease to be so. (Kingwell 414) If this is true then the reciprocal proverb stating happiness is bliss appears to make sense now more than ever. In other words, the less one tries to define happiness the happier that person will probably find themselves to be. In this way sadness proves to be a sobering phenomenon as its very observation entails realism while happiness proves otherwise as its existence depends on obliviousness. Pessimism tends to correspond to realism. In Jennifer Seniors article Some Dark Thoughts on Happiness she interviews several positive psychology experts to get an idea of how happiness affects judgment. As a pessimist herself, she appears to argue slightly in favor of pessimism when it comes to whether pessimists are more realistic than optimists. In her essay she writes, One of the most interesting bits of American research to surface-repeatedly- in books about happiness is a study that shows depressives are far more likely to be realists while happy people are more likely to walk around in a mild state of delusion. (Senior) This statement objectively shows how pessimists have more realistic expectations and observations of the world around them. She goes further in describing the effect of pessimists on the world and its history. The presidents who gave the most pessimistic inaugural speecheswent down in history as being great (Senior 430). She even goes so far as to imply that President Bushs optimism effected how he handled the Iraq War stating President [George W. Bush] optimistic and full of faithnot quite able to see the world as it is (Senior 430). Perhaps if Bush was not so irrationally confident throughout the Iraq war he would have been able to deal with it more

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prudently. It is easy to see that Jennifer Senior is an especially stout supporter among many, including psychologists, that pessimism implies realism. In my own experience, I find that my pessimism makes me a realistic person. I scored a 1.88 on the Authentic Happiness Test which is pretty low, being below the fifteenth percentile of the average scores. I am aware that I am an overall unhappy person. I am also a firm believer in Murphys Law which further prepares me for the pitfalls of reality. While I wish that I was a happier person at most times I am also thankful sometimes for my pessimism as it helps me to be a more realistic person. One example of my benign pessimism is commuting to William Paterson. While it is a forty minute commute from my town, I am aware that I can consistently get there faster pretty much every day. Even so, I still give myself forty to fifty minutes which not only gives me breathing room in terms of time if there is traffic, but I also get to school a little early. This is only one of the ways that my pessimism and corresponding realism benefit my life. Though Sadness as an attitude helps one to see the world more practically one might wonder what it is worth without happiness. Though it is true that sadness can help one be more realistic throughout life and accomplish important things, happiness is the thing that makes any accomplishment worthwhile. Nobody sees their wedding day or the birth of their children in practical business terms of cost versus benefit. They see them as joyous events that give them a sense of fulfillment in life. Optimism is also the driving force behind the greatest achievements of history. If everyone had to be realistic and only made choices when the odds were in their favor then no risks would ever be taken and nothing great would get done. The independence of the United States is one prime example. The Founding Fathers stood up the entirety of the British Empire which ruled most of the world at the time when the United States were mere colonies.

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With fewer numbers and less supplies Americans eventually defeated the British against all odds and founded a nation based on new principles and ideals. More realistic leaders may have simply worked within the confines of British rule to achieve wealth and success but the American leaders chose a more ambitious path that would pay off better for them if they took a chance. This is only one of the examples where optimism acts as a driving force for aspiring acts. Though Sadness is useful for everyday decision making, optimism is also needed to make important decisions at times. Happiness and sadness both play key roles in our everyday lives and overall selves. One cannot exist without the other and too much of either is unhealthy. While balance is the key to living healthily the two do not necessarily have to be at an equilibrium. Some people are happier than others and that cannot be changed. However it is still necessary to recognize the effects of happiness and sadness respectively. As we have seen, sadness plays a role in realism while happiness seems to rely on naivety. One is not more important than the other but both have their profound impact on how we live.

Higgins 5 Works Cited

Kingwell, Mark "Some Dark Thoughts on Happiness." Writing and reading Across the Curriculum. Ed. Laurence Behrens, Leonard J. Rosen. Boston, MA: Pearson, 2013. 413-415. Print Senior, Jennifer. "Some Dark Thoughts on Happiness." Writing and reading Across the Curriculum. Ed. Laurence Behrens, Leonard J. Rosen. Boston, MA: Pearson, 2013. 422- 430. Print.