Happiness vs. Contentment

Ever since I retired people ask the same question in various ways.

  • “How do you like retirement?” Generally equivalent to “How are you?”
  • “Are you bored?” These folks can’t imagine not working.
  • “What do you do all day?” The direct challenge approach.
  • “Are you happy?” Here’s the one that gave me pause.

I don’t recall people asking “Are you happy?” directly at other times in my life. It must be something about the transition from work to retirement that prompts this question and I didn’t know how to answer it right away. Then the word ‘content’ started popping into my head.

Is there a difference between happiness and contentment? Of course there is. I’m sure you can be found in the dictionary. But what do the two states of being FEEL like? What do you think? I welcome your thoughts on this.

Giving it my best shot, I’d say contentment is truly a state of being. It is not necessarily dependent on someone or something. Happiness, while it can be considered a state, and not to be knocked, is more a reaction and that said, has the characteristic of being wonderfully fleeting. It’s the difference between ‘Cheers!’ & ‘Namaste’. I’m going for both in equal measure.

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Just finished…Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

Cloud_AtlasTruth be told, it was this book’s title and cover-art images that interested me. Pen and ink illustrations along with satellite and radar images of clouds all hint at the book’s central them of our inter-connected lives, especially through the passage of time.

Let yourself roll with Mitchell’s ability to write six unique stories from disparate places and times. You’ll be asking, how does this relate, right up until the time it all invariably does!

Adam Ewing – a Pacific Ocean adventure circa 1850 which starts and ends this novel;

Robert Frobisher – a roguish, tragically talented pianist who composes his masterpiece sextet ‘Cloud Atlas’ which resurfaces in two of the other stories;

Luisa Rey – a 1970’s era tough-as-nails LA journalist who is in way over her smart little head;

Timothy Cavendish – an unlucky, lucky Brit who steals the show while living through a true nightmare;

Sonmi-451 – one unique human clone in a future populated with clones who serve burgers, clean nuclear waste and don’t get any kind of retirement benefits;

Zachary – a boy’s wild adventure in postapocalyptic Hawaii, which reads more like Huck Finn meets Bladerunner;

Cloud Atlas was adapted into a film in 2012.