Do We Know What We Want?

Almost all of us could come closer to having what we want, if we were sure we knew what we wanted. Of course we know we want “happiness” and “peace” and “plenty”—and some other things that perhaps we could call by name. But we must answer these questions also: What would make us happy? What would give us peace? How much would we need to have before we thought we had “plenty”? Perhaps we could answer by pointing to people who seem to have what we think we want. But they aren’t always happy, either. And if what they have doesn’t make them happy, how can we be so sure that it would make us happy? Sometimes we set our hearts on unessential things and think we can’t be happy unless we have them. And if our minds are fixed in a false direction, perhaps we can’t. But many things we once thought we wanted we soon tired of after we got them. And even if we don’t tire of them, even if we use and appreciate them, often they don’t make the difference between happiness and unhappiness. It isn’t that having things is a barrier to happiness. It is just that some of the things we think we want don’t make as much difference as we thought they would. In this blessed land we live in, the earth is provident; our comforts, our conveniences proverbial. But even though the realities we have in our hands are much more than kings could once have had, can anyone say for sure that people are happier than they ever were? And yet others look at us and say, “If we had what they have, we would be happy.” Perhaps it wasn’t intended that complete contentment should come in this life. Perhaps the reaching and the searching were meant to be. But those who come closest to happiness are those who really know what they want and are on their way; who have some good goal and are willing to work for it, and who have a settled faith in divine plan and purpose—faith in an ultimately worth-while end, that helps them to survive the shocks. And perhaps more people are unhappy because they don’t know where they’re going or what they want than because they can’t have what they want.