"Why can't we all be happy?" the answer...

Ok, so I am perusing facebook, looking at comments and posts left by friends. I come across a comment a friend left on someone else's post. I do not know this other person, the original poster so they are naturally not on my friends list. However, the post raised an interesting question that was followed with an interesting "debate."

The question was, "Why can't we all be happy, why, please tell me?" (Naturally I have corrected the grammar for this post).

What followed was evasive answers such as my friend's, "It's called life." Considering the question and exactly how valid it really is, I am compelled to try to give a more detailed, if not precise, answer.

My friend was right, it is the nature of life. What is left out of this simple but straight forward answer is explanation.

Human beings, as a species, are defined by two things; our successes and our failures. Success leads us forward beyond our current state. Failure teaches us that what we have tried is not the path to success. Two very different ideals that share one common factor that is the foundation of human existence.

We cannot always be happy because it is our struggles that are our foundation. Not only are our struggles the foundation of our lives, but they are the whole point of our existence. We exist to endeavor. Those who endeavor the most, over come more struggles, learn to endure. With this endurance, they take on more difficult endeavors. All of these endeavors, whether they end with success or not, serve us in some way or another. Failure teaches us the lessons we must learn in order to build the strength to endure. Success signals the end of one struggle, one endeavor, and the beginning of the next.

In the end, and my whole point to all of this is that we can find happiness. But in small doses, small successes. All of it surrounded by struggle, hardship, and the whole reason we seek happiness to begin with. In the end, seek to endeavor, endure, and examine and you will find happiness. Happiness is a consequence, not a goal. To seek happiness as a goal is to be forever looking, forever struggling.