Is life a Fox-hunt?

Some might wonder what life is all about. I can admit to doing quite a bit of that myself. What are we chasing after? That elusive thing called happiness ? That brings us to the next logical question - what'll make u happy? Is it a red ferrari (or in the case of Jamiroquai - about 56 fabulous cars), a Gulfstream V (yeah - the Gulfstream IV is passe), your own island ( a la Branson), a 200 ft yacht (like Jim Clark or Larry Ellison), a new model in tow (i mean the live kind - not a car) every season - or all of these!!! Will these trappings of success be enough to make you happy? I am of course assuming that everybody wants to be happy ;-) Debatable- i'll admit. But let us move ahead with that premise.

I think everybody would have wished as kids to be rich and succesful - maybe even somebody rich, succesful and famous too in the bargain like a rock star or a sportsperson. Some might even have wished that they had Bill Gates (maybe a bad choice as he is giving away most of his wealth to charity) for a dad so that they'd never have to worry about anything and just 'do their own thing'. But just think about it for a minute. What would you do in life if all you ever wanted was given to you? What about the rest of your life? Hmmm... maybe you could try giving it away like many of the Philanthropists who were born rich (the Rockfeller family is a good example). Do you try give it away to your kids ? With estate taxes, inheritance taxes and so on, they'd be lucky if they end up with enough to keep up maintatining the good old family home/mansion! That leaves the idea of a charitable trust. What could be more useless or boring than a professional philanthropist giving away what you haven't, and perhaps, couldn't have achieved!!! Is that what you'd want your life to be?

What i am trying to convey is that the Journey is an 'end in itself'. When you have reached your destination you'll find that it never lives up to what you imagined it to be during the journey. As long as you are moving purposefully, you'll be happy - you are on an adrenaline high - it is a rush just anticipating how it'd be when you finally acheive what you are trying to. But what after that? People often set a new target and start moving towards that. Some call it sheer materialism or greed. But is it as simple as that? These are people who never play the lottery, those who'd never want to make a quick buck on the sly. Shouldn't we call them idealists? What if they do end up making a lot of money in the process of doing what they set out to do? It is but a symbol of their achievement. To have a chance at happiness, you got to have a chance for achievement. Huh - does that mean that we are to pity a Yash Birla? Sure - that'd be the logical conclusion, wouldn't it ! Just think about all the poor little rich boys trying to find happiness in all sorts of weird cults / off-beat religions and you'll know what i mean. They can't see that it is right under their noses. But having been born to success, they won't regard 'making money' or growing a business as success - they don't or can't know how difficult it is.

TK - in case you read this - i am talking about people like us who've found out that what we set out to achieve is often less satisfying than its pursuit. All the excitement lies in the chase, like in a fox-hunt. I think the only exception to the rule is relationships ;-) This might again be arguable, but that is what i believe! And after all, isn't it nice to be able to find the exception that proves the rule.

ubergeek, the

P.S: If they ever read this, my poor mom and dad (pun intended, though they'd be livid if i call them 'poor' - after all i contributed heavily to keep them that way - i've been dubbed 'the white elephant' by one of my friends from college) would be elated to know that I think they gave their offspring a good chance of being happy !