Chapter 18 - Contemplating human destiny, Pre-empting pain & Pursuing happiness

I've once read that the main failure of education is that it has not prepared people to comprehend matters concerning human destiny. We are merely prepared for society's immediate needs, neglecting the needs that matter the most to us. I looked at the people who walked past me today and I wondered what made them happy. Was it her beautiful daughter that made her heart smile and who gave her life meaning? Was it the glaring red Ferrari that he was driving in or the fact that he had plenty of friends to laugh and talk with or the quiet moments of peaceful solitude that some seemed satisfying lost in? And then when I looked deeper, something betrayed their apparent happiness. Are we all hiding pain? Are we giving in to that human impulse to abandon our dreams and the ones we love so that we can stanch the pain of loss. Do I sometimes act on impulse in cutting my losses fast? Yes. Do I succumb to pre-empting events to prevent myself from further emotional damage? Yes. Could we be happy if we steeled ourselves and focused on the problem at hand and remind ourselves that someday the world would surprise us with something totally unexpected because in the world we live in, something unexpected always occurs and then we are temporarily or (hopefully) permanently relieved of that pain? Am I happy? I couldn't answer that honestly. Are you?