by Barry Williams

Created on: January 30, 2010   Last Updated: January 31, 2010

Are there really any secret keys to happiness?  If these keys were known to everybody then they wouldn't be secret would they? If  people learned them presumably they would have to be shot.   Also keys are used to open locks. Happiness is not something  locked away that can be found by a set of secret keys.  There are no  real secret  keys to happiness. It is simply a state of mind that can be as fleeting as a puff of wind or as  indelible an impression on surviving a hurricane.

Freedom must be close to the top of the list for  happiness.  Take away a person's freedom and all vestiges of  happiness would die ,wouldn't it?  Really that is not so.  The human spirit will always find happiness regardless of circumstances.   The key to happiness in those situations is to find an individual who can rise above misery and inspire other people to endure.  In prison camps these people engendered happiness even if only for a few hours by organizing concerts ,  language courses and so forth. 

If  a person is miserable and wants to be that way is there anyway they can be made to be instantly happy? Supposing there was a key that you could insert into a lock in their arm that would turn a frown into a smile.  Strange as it may seem there are people who are quite happy to be miserable most of the time.  In fact  they would not at all be happy if things went their way.  They thrive on being miserable.

" I won three thousand dollars a week ago. I knew it was too good to be true.  I smashed my car and it cost me three thousand dollars to fix it.  Every time I get a bit of money it goes in one hand and out the other."

These people are found everywhere.  There would few people who have not encountered the perpetual pessimist.  Lock them up in their misery and throw away the keys. 

Just to be living in a country where food is abundant should be reason for happiness.  Fat people are happy or at least they are supposed to be.  In that case  considering that  a large proportion of the population living in America is obese it would be expected that  the key to happiness is to have three meals a day in a fast food restaurant.  Someone made a movie about  eating nothing but fast food for days on end.  Was that person happy to make himself sick?  Probably not,  however the money he made by making

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