As a teenager or as a person who is growing, the achievements and success experienced during these times can be considered not important or minute in the grand scheme of things. And looking towards the future, the greatest accomplishment might be considered making a lot of money, having a nice house and to drive a nice car. However, the greatest achievement is not any object or possession.
Even though this is very vague, can't fully be understood and some may consider it "cheesy" the greatest achievement in life is happiness. What is the point of life if you are not happy? Even if you make a large amount of money or driving a Lamborghini, if you are not happy then those do not matter. However, those may make certain people happy and in that case, they have succeeded. In order to achieve this, I would go to great lengths to achieve this. The good news is that any one has the power and ability to do what makes them happy or to stop anything that does not. I would not cross my morals or break any laws. If I did, I would possibly be full of regret and maybe even serve time in prison depending on the extent of the action. I would not break morals or the laws because the consequences for both would be deterring in the progress towards happiness, almost like one step forward three steps back. Although this can be considered the greatest achievement in life, it is difficult to understand and to obtain because what really is happiness?
I agree with Michael. I would also not cross legal or moral boundaries to be happy because in the end that would most likely result in me not being happy with my decision to cross those blurry lines. As Michael said, the resulting consequence of breaking legal or moral laws would ultimately end up making me more unhappy then when I started. This connects to Macbeth because in the beginning Macbeth killed King Duncan in order for him and Lady Macbeth to be king and queen. While they thought this was one of the greatest achievements they could make in life (being king and queen), it really has not been all it was caked up to be. Since Macbeth killed Duncan, he has significantly changed (he was obviously affected from killing him and his decision to kill Banquo). So the real question is, was it all worth it? Together, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth crossed a major moral and legal boundary in order to achieve what they wanted. While I (and many other people in our class) agree that happiness is the greatest accomplishment in life, I don't believe that is what Lady Macbeth and Macbeth would say, especially because they were willing to kill someone for their own gain.
ReplyDeleteI agree with both of you in the sense that yes, happiness is a state of being in which almost every person wishes to be in, yet in our world today, just like Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, people are willing to do whatever it takes to be happy, which controversially is sad. The word happy is a very broad term, and every person is happy in a different way. Consequently, there are those that pretend to be happy, or even people that force themselves into thinking they are happy. While they may think they are achieving their greatest accomplishment, they really aren't. I know that I myself would never cross any illegal or immoral boundaries because knowing myself, I wouldn't be able to live with the guilt of knowing that I made someone else unhappy for the sake of my own happiness, therefore I won't be happy myself. Happiness is a paradox within itself because how does one know if they have actually reached happiness? Can happiness or satisfaction with oneself ever be reached? Are people forcing themselves to believe that they have reached 'their' happiness? Is happiness a realistic accomplishment?
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