question 7a: What makes for a happy life?
I've thought a lot about this one, and so has most everyone. I believe there is a reasonably simple answer to this question: other people and meaningful activity. Broadly speaking happiness comes from two things: our relationships with others and our work, which may or may not be our job. We are social creatures and our relationships with our partners, our families and our friends all go a long way toward determining our happiness. Or lack thereof. Too often we take others for granted, but a person with deep and meaningful friendships and relationships is likely to be a happy person. We also spend much of our adult lives working at a job or pursuing a vocation. What's important, I think, is that we have some activity that we devote our time to pursuing as an end in itself, that we partake of simply because we enjoy the process itself, and not only because we hope it will lead to other rewards. If we are lucky, we earn our livelihoods in this way. If we simply have a job that cannot provide us this satisfaction then we must find it elsewhere, but it is important that we find it somewhere.
disclaimer: these are my mostly unedited thoughts. Obviously they are not academic in nature. I myself, and pretty much everyone who reads this, has an academic background of some sort and that's fine, but the context here is clearly different. Depth, complexity, erudition--won't find em here!
