It’s interesting to think that after working your way up to this high point of ecstasy or happiness the only thing left is a decline. If I think about it in relation to relationships, like the lovers in Ode on a Grecian Urn, I feel like this concept messes with my idea of what romance is. If it’s inevitable that the relationship will fade into something completely lackluster then why even try? I really wonder what it is that we’re searching for if all we can do is await the breaking point; all we can do is try to convince ourselves the love is still there. I really loved the explanation of that annoying line of “oh happy, happy love” cause reading it was truly annoying, and I like to think it did serve some importance to the poem. But even beyond relationships what’s the point of working your way up to this ecstatic union, or this moment of ecstasy, if all that’s left is to fall (As I typed that The Climb by Miley Cyrus played in my mind.) It seems awfully pessimistic to think that once you reach your happiest point you’ll only lose that happiness, It’s reminds me of the board game Sorry when you make it into safety but get the ‘go back 4’ card and have to move back out onto the board where you’re instantly “Sorry’d” by the player who’s been in home the entire game. And that’s how I feel about it.
Commented on "too bust to title this"
That is a very challenging idea to think about. When we think about the rest of our lives and reason that its inevitably going to be divided in to two parts, the uphill journey to the moment of ecstasy, followed by the decline from that moment, we can't help but feel a sense of hopelessness. However, I think that as we progress in our lives, our sense of happiness continually changes, and we experience one moment of ecstasy after another. For a teenage girl, going to a Justin Beiber concert may literally be the happiest moment of her life up until that point. However, when she becomes old, I would venture to say that she takes just as much happiness, if not much more, from seeing her kids and grandkids growing up and enjoying life. I think its safe to say that as we grow up, our capacity for happiness changes, so its not that we reach a "happiness climax" and then decline, but rather that we are continually experiencing moments of ecstasy that go along with that capacity.
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