Tagged For Happiness
Tagged For Happiness
I’ve been tagged for happiness by Jessica:
Let’s keep looking at the bright side of life.
I’m tagging Daniel
https://returnofdragons.wordpress.com/
and Sherry
https://sherriedevaleriahendrie.wordpress.com/
Rules:
1. Each Thursday, Beckie will pick a theme (Naturally something positive).
2. She will therefore tag two bloggers to continue the themed positive message along.
3. You the recipient of the tag can select anyway you want to share this positivity (Example Quote, Affirmation, Music Video, Memes, Pictures etc. as long as it sticks to the theme).
4. Please create a ping back to the original post
“POP!” Pop of Positivity Share
as well as notifying your tagged bloggers that you have selected them.
For the theme of Happiness, I will be sharing two videos.
The videos are on the subject of joy.
Joy is actually something somewhat different from happiness.
Joy is something you can suddenly experience even in the midst of despair.
-Amadeus Emanon
The above is a quote from Amadeus Emanon one of the characters in my vampire novel that he made many years ago.
For a full explanation on what is the difference between joy and happiness, I suggest reading C.S. Lewis’ book Surprised By Joy.
For a brief explanation, I would say joy is something that is bestowed supernaturally.
Happiness is generally dependent on the physical world and one’s surroundings (people and places).
Ever since my dad died from cancer back in June 2010 and I developed clinical depression as a result, happiness has been something difficult to find on a daily basis.
But in the years since my dad died, I have experienced joy.
Joy is something that is bestowed as a blessing from an external force or what I would say as a blessing from an external person (let Star Wars keep its force. Electricity is a force but it is not a person). That external person being God.
Here then are the songs that for me express joy and give me joy:
Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring
Fairest Lord Jesus
Dracul Van Helsing 
Judy Kim said,
September 30, 2019 at 9:11 am
Interesting that C S Lewis wrote “Surprised by Joy”, he married an American woman named Joy 🙂 who apparently rocked his world and ended his pious bachelor days. I liked Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia very much as a child. I’m sorry to hear about how your father’s death affected you, you must have been very close. Apologies for my next comment, a tirade against Star Wars (I can’t resist commenting), I think Star Wars represents the illusion of white superiority. Lucas stole Asian mysticism/philosophy and rebranded it for a white audience without any inspirational source acknowledgement or notable inclusion of Asian characters, the few shown, are marginalized characters. Chi is the force, but it’s not supposed to be “forceful”, he missed the whole point because he’s not a martial artist, Buddhist or anything but a white dude from wealthy Marin, California, Imperialist, USA.
Dracul Van Helsing said,
September 30, 2019 at 1:41 pm
I never really liked the Star Wars movies myself.
I was never a big fan.
Most people in the big megachurches in Canada and the U.S.seem to see God as just like the Force of Star Wars so actually my comment was a pot shot against them.
How God can be both a personal being and an impersonal force at the same time is beyond me.
Although sadly logic has never been a strong suit in the 21st Century.
Yes, I took a course in Taoism in my Philosophy studies in University and I remember at the time thinking that George Lucas’ Force was just a Cracker Jack popcorn box version of the Tao.
Judy Kim said,
September 30, 2019 at 5:50 pm
Star Wars seems to never die, despite how bad it becomes with each version. The original is very dated, it only worked for the audience of it’s original release but now they’ve passed the torch to their children to pretend to save the cosmos. Lucas studied with Joseph Campbell who inspired him to write=steal the ancient myths about Twin Stars and Chi. Taoism is very insightful, I think it’s funny that Lucas chose “the force” which sounds very Yang instead of “the way” which is more accurate to describe Chi in my opinion. God as “the Force” also sounds so patriarchal haha!
Dracul Van Helsing said,
September 30, 2019 at 7:02 pm
I remember one of my English literature professors used to reference Joseph Campbell’s The Hero With A Thousand Faces quite a lot when he was discussing myths and hero tales.
Judy Kim said,
October 1, 2019 at 9:11 am
I like Campbell, very intelligent man.
Dracul Van Helsing said,
October 1, 2019 at 2:30 pm
Yes, he showed how Jung’s theory of the collective unconscious was true given some of the startling similarities in myths and hero tales throughout the world.
Jessica said,
September 30, 2019 at 9:10 pm
I love the melody on the first video. So calming…
Dracul Van Helsing said,
September 30, 2019 at 9:22 pm
It is.
The melody for the first song was written by the great 18th Century Baroque composer Johann Sebastian Bach.
Jessica said,
October 1, 2019 at 7:26 am
I’m bad when it comes to recognizing musician and composers but thanks to you I found another favorite 😀
Dracul Van Helsing said,
October 1, 2019 at 2:32 pm
He was an extremely intelligent musician and composer. 😀
Jessica said,
October 1, 2019 at 2:50 pm
Figures. I’m easily distracted so I actually end up browsing the internet for more to listen to instead of reading 😁
Dracul Van Helsing said,
October 1, 2019 at 3:58 pm
😂
theresaly520 said,
October 4, 2019 at 5:48 am
Really enjoying your songs, and quotes about the distinction between joy and happiness. Studied about that concept in an English literature class. I’m curious to learn what cs Lewis would say
Dracul Van Helsing said,
October 4, 2019 at 2:46 pm
C.S. Lewis’ book is very interesting. 🙂