Tuesday,Sep 1 2009, 06:06:07 PMTHE UNHAPPY KING

 Once upon a time there was a king who had everything the world had to offer – all that money could buy, plus absolute power over his people. But despite all the money and power and prestige he possessed, he had a major problem. He was not happy.

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And so he summoned the wisest of wise men in all his kingdom and asked them to provide him with a solution to his problem. “I want to be happy,” he said. “I command you to tell me how to achieve happiness.” After consulting with one another, the wisest of all the wise men in the kingdom came up with a solution to the king’s problem.

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“You must find a truly happy man in your kingdom, take his shirt from him and wear it yourself. Then, you too will be happy.” So the king dispatched his elite horsemen to every corner of the kingdom in search of a truly happy man and, eventually, they found one. The trouble was, he didn’t own a shirt!

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The moral of the story is: Happiness cannot be found in positions, fame, and wealth, especially if wealth is ill-gotten. In his book The Secret of Happiness, American author D. Prager says, “I have often thought that if Hollywood stars have a role to play, it is to teach us that happiness has nothing to do with fun.

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“These rich, beautiful individuals have constant access to glamorous parties, fancy cars, expensive houses, everything that spells ‘happiness.’ But in memoir after memoir, celebrities reveal the unhappiness hidden beneath all their fun: Depression, alcoholism, drug addiction, broken marriages, troubled children, profound loneliness.”

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Obviously, we all need money to live and have security. But to make it our sole obsession in life will not guarantee us genuine happiness. Foremost among the sources of happiness is doing good to others or showing kindness.

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In his latest book, How to Live Between Office Visits, the widely-read author, Dr. Bernie Siegel writes: “If you want to be happy for an hour, take a nap; for a day, go fishing; for a month, inherit a fortune; for a lifetime, do something good, for someone else.”

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Doing kindness could be as simple as carrying the heavy bag of a harried elderly shopper or sharing some food to some destitute people, visiting a sick friend or bereaved family or reaching out to people who can’t repay you.

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Happiness is also doing God’s will. Unhappiness is the opposite, which is disobeying His will as concretized in the 10 Commandments. Honor your father and mother; you shall not kill, steal, commit adultery and so on. In short, living in sin is the ultimate cause of unhappiness.

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 Related to this is that faith and well-being show that people who are actively religious are happier than those who are not. This was confirmed in a survey by the Princeton Religion Research Center and the Gallup Organization on the “State of Religion in America.” Religious people are much less likely to abuse drugs and alcohol, to divorce, or to commit suicide.

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One final thing to remember. Real and perfect happiness can not be found in this world. We can experience it only in heaven. In the words of St. Paul, “The sufferings of the present are as nothing compared to the glory to be revealed in us” (Rom 8:8).

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THE LIGHTER SIDE. A man approaches a priest: “Please bless me, Father, for I feel very miserable?” “Why?” asked the priest. The man replied, “Because of family problems. My wife is estapadora; my son is a drug user; my daughter is unwed mother.” Tired of listening to all his woes, the priest said: “Is there anything positive about your life?” “Yes, there is. I am HIV positive!” the man replied.

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Did you hear about the man who spent his life collecting memorabilia of Wonder Woman, Joan of Arc, and Florence Nightingale? He was called a “Heroine addict.”

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