Happiness vs. Joy.

Because I've often wondered how, in the words of someone far more articulate than I, "joy can be effervescent in a person whose circumstances look bleak and how joyless a person can be in spite of great blessing. How many times have we seen a person in a wheelchair just beaming, and a wealthy, healthy person just plain miserable?"




From disciplegideon's blog:

Happiness comes when things go your way; joy flows despite things not going your way.

Happiness comes when circumstances are favorable; joy comes regardless of circumstances.

Happiness is fleeting and based on emotion; joy is permanent and not based on emotions.

Happiness is a never-ending pursuit; joy is a never-ending rest.

Happiness comes from natural, tangible sources; joy comes from supernatural, intangible sources.

Happiness comes when you are loved; joy comes when you love others.

Happiness feeds the soul; joy feeds the spirit.

Happiness is in finding what pleases you; joy is in finding what pleases another.

Happiness is a goal; joy is a gift.

Happiness can be earned and strived for; joy cannot be earned.

Happiness is a personal quest with diminishing returns; joy is a selfless quest that is ever-growing.

Happiness can come at the expense of another; joy comes as we pour ourselves into another.

Happiness is temporary; joy is permanent.

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Besieged by Battle

The 20th century has seen more violence than at any other time in history, despite advancements in technology and a supposed evolved state of consciousness. America, the "moral" example for the globe, continues this paradoxical trend into the 21st century as we have started a war almost 7-years ago, that persists until today. Yet, we the people have suffered very little, with the exception of American soldiers and their families, who have had to endure more than their fair share.

The following pictures are not all the result of America's war, however, war, no matter how "just", creates the conditions for man's ultimate inhumanity to man, and as they say, "A picture is worth 1,000 words":






An Afghan refugee child.(MANPREET ROMANA/AFP/Getty Images)
A Kenyan boy.(WALTER ASTRADA/AFP/Getty Images)
The results of 20 years of war: A before and after photo of Paghman Gardens, Kabul Afghanistan taken 40-years apart.

"What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad distraction of war is wrought under the name of totalitarianism, or the holy name of liberty or democracy?" -- M. K. Ghandi

"All the talk of history is of nothing almost but fighting and killing, and the honor and renown which are bestowed on conquerors, who, for the most part, are mere butchers of mankind, mislead growing youth, who, by these means, come to think slaughter the most laudable business of mankind, and the most heroic of virtue." -- John Locke (1632-1704)

"For what are the triumphs of war, planned by ambition, executed by violence and consummated by devastation? The means are the sacrifice of many, the end, the bloated aggrandizement of the few." -- Charles Colton

"The butter to be sacrificed always turns out to be the margarine of the poor." -- James Tobin

"He who is the author of a war lets loose the whole contagion and opens a vein that bleeds a nation to death." -- Thomas Paine

"Patriotism is the last refuge of every scoundrel." -- Samuel Johnson

"In all history there is no war, which was not hatched by the governments, the governments alone, independent of the interests of the people, to whom war is always pernicious even when successful." -- Leo Tolstoy

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