Modern myth in contemporary culture and society

¶ … happiness' as my myth. I choose this because it is all prevalent, existing not just in the business sphere, but in all aspects of society, and because understanding what happiness truly is and isn't essential to our human endeavor in this world.

Happiness, as Winterson (2011) points out built on the Middle English word 'hap', or in Old English 'gehapp', which means to happen. The chance or fortune, good or bad that falls to you. Hap is your lot in life, the hand you are given to play. In fact, it is similar to 'happening'.

How you meet your 'hap', reflects Winterson who had spent much of her childhood in the coalceller and, nonetheless, survived and loved life, determines whether or not you can be 'happy'. Happiness, therefore, does not come from 'happiness' -- her adopted mother had played the piano singing hell to the world. Happiness comes from being goal-centered. Winterson herself had sung 'hail all saints' whilst in the cellar.

We mythically think of happiness as the feeling of pleasure and contentment; it is a bovine sort of pleasure, dependent on circumstances, and fleeting. And, therefore, never really intense or real.

The American constitution says that we have "the right to pursuit of happiness." But what we should really be pursuing -- if we want real 'happiness" is meaning, a meaningful life. There's the 'hap', the fate that comes to us and, sometimes, makes us happy but making this fixed is something that has to come from us and takes energy. It means taking the 'hap' and making it into something, regardless of the 'hap'. And that's when we may procure a more substantial, longer-lasting 'happiness'.

In this way, it reminds me of Katie Byron's (2002) insight that thoughts cannot be controlled; they are like passing clouds that simply happen. One moment you are in a good mood and the next in a bad mood. They pass over us; just 'happen'. It is the way that we deal with these thoughts that can best define the outcome of our lives. Aptly, her book was called "Loving what is," and her program became known as "the Work."

Katie Byron should know. She spent years wrestling with depression and, one day, lying on the floor of a neglected motel, awoke to find her depression had disappeared. She returned to her British village a new person. Her family and the villagers noticed her rejuvenated appearance, and v very soon they flocked to her for advice. Byron's ideas differ from the trite prescription of the pop-help industry. They have come from herself. From her suffering. And, as she noted, we pursue one self-help technique after the other in search of that slippery thing called happiness. In the end, happiness is not a bovine concept as commonly thought. Rather it is thoughts, or instance, or circumstances that 'happen. The way we deal with them determines our state of mind. And meaningfulness, rather than happiness, may be a more worthwhile, authentic, and genuine construct to pursue.