New days

I'm back! And I don't just mean from my mini vacation away from home, refreshing as it was!
Whether it's the old me or a brand new and revitalized me, that 'me' is back.
We have had a simply wonderful time leaving behind the cares of the day in a place far, far away.

We visited restaurants and the aquarium, a museum, even the beach at night but most of all we had the time to appreciate who we are and perhaps more importantly, who we are to each other. In a way I've been discovering my self, my need and I think it is a natural human need for self fulfilment. If we don't have it or don't know how to get it or we don't even know what it is that we want then this creates emptiness within.
In coming back from a 'lost place' it seems to signify that I now reside in a 'found' place. This fits nicely with my happiness factor since I really need to know who I am. Do you know who you are yet?
Ask that seemingly simple question and so many people will answer with their name or a title or a connection to the asker because the real answer is perhaps difficult and we don't truly know ourselves.
How about an answer such as, "Yeah, I'm me!"
It is very dismissive and so far from meaningful descriptors as to cause concern for the future of human understanding as a whole never mind the philosophical aspects.
Perhaps proof of who you are is nothing more than a passport or Identity card.
Who I am and who you are you is really a question that would baffle most people and if any of you think you can answer it, do so!
I start to think that the way to look it this is to regard the question with a philosophical eye. Strip it down to its simplest form as if composing proof theorems in math and no sooner than I write this then the thought that in taking away that something to leave the bare components then perhaps I remove a part of the very essence of it. Perhaps even in regarding it, it may abide by the quantum rule-book and be in effect changed.
At the base level I could say that if self fulfilment is my goal then what on Earth can make me happy?
Can my happiness come from doing the right thing? Can it come from living and dying for a value that can transcend me?
Are my values created by my choices in life or do my choices create my values in life?
Are lives made up of a series of experiences or a series of distractions with the occasion taste of happiness?

I think we have a tendency to dress up the true but crude and base nature of ourselves in nice, fancy and decorative words with scientific emphasis to coldly and analytically make or describe something about us more than rather simple biological programmed animals that we are. Yes of course love makes us happy but why does it, because you do something magnanimous, charitable, considerate or benevolent? Shall we declare to the world how wonderful we are because we are loved and love in return? Or is it simply because of the way it makes us feel inside? She loves me so I am worthy and I am validated as someone worth loving.

Aristotle did say that "Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence" and yet what is it in love relationships that make us happy?

Nietzsche's 'last men' seem to find it in their pitiable comforts, a rather condemning view of our small and vulgar pleasures. Pleasures are from our feelings and the feelings that we experience can give us happiness and happiness then is a sign that for a moment at least, we are fulfilled.

In the first image I gave it a title from a Robert Heinlein quote in that "Love is the condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own." and it sounds wonderful. It is the essence of poetry across cultures and languages and it is the flavor of love songs in my collection and yet saying that people love others not for who they are but for how they make themselves feel inside still seems to ring true. Why would we value that person and love them to the point of making their survival more important than our own if there was not some benefit to us.

Perhaps my reason is flawed or cynical but as reasonable beings it's a fair comment to say that pure love does produce pure nonsense and reason and cold hard logic flies out of the window to be replaced by sweet honey laced words, weak knees and making eyes at each other.

Happiness in other things outside of love is beyond my little thought for this post. In these things happiness is tied to goals and ambitions rather than placed upon others.

I feel happy and the people in my life contribute a lot to that. If I was suddenly alone on a deserted island and even if I had all my survival needs for my life time present with me on that island, I don't believe I could be as happy as I am and have been. I don't embellish the past into be something more than it was and I don't look at today in a bad light. I just know that I need people, these people in my life to make me happy.
Right now I feel happy and I will make eyes at her.