Monday, July 4, 2011

bottle happiness

oddly enough, the idea of this post was inspired by a line from the first Harry Potter book where the potions master, Professor Snape, delivers a speech to a first year Potions class.

the exact line he delivered, if my memory doesn't fail me is:

"I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, and even put a stopper in death..."

the harry potter series alone means a lot to me; more than words could ever express. and I have the amazing J.K. Rowling to thank for that. apart from filling my childhood with great memories, it also served as a comfort and hope in days where I felt most down.

though i knew that this great world that she created was only fiction, i remember thinking to my very young self that I fervently wished that the magical world was real. i knew better then and i definitely know much better now, but sometimes, i think things would be a little better if there was a bit of real magic in life.

say...if professor snape can bottle fame then the same could definitely be done with happiness. although i find it grand that J.K. has been great enough to elaborate fail-safes in the magical world she created to of course keep the check and balance in life.

say for example, in the magical world, a love potion only creates the illusion of love but not the real thing. analyzing it scientifically i guess what an illusion of love means is that it's just an induced chemical taken to force the production of a chemical produced in the human brain that is often interpreted as or called love; but it is by no means unconditional or genuine therefore it is an illusion.

because of this particular fail safe idea then i guess it would be reasonable to assume that the same could be said for a bottle of happiness. i guess even if magic did really exist, it would be logical for something like happiness to not be able to be genuinely bottled. otherwise, there would be no point in seeking it naturally.

human existence is defined by the experiences that only the enigma of life can provide. although it would be great if things could be easier.

it would be grand if true and genuine happiness could be bottled.

it would be nice to feel happy all the time.

then again...if life is only happiness then it wouldn't really be life and you wouldn't be really living.

a bottle of happiness i realized is just a means of an escape. a temporary sanctuary. but still something that couldn't last forever even if it's real.

the only upside to a bottle of happiness is that you can choose when you can be happy. and if life is giving you such a hard time and you can't take any of it any longer then you can escape to a temporary sanctuary of true happiness.

a temporary relief would be really great. the moderation to not abusing a bottle of happiness i guess would be it's scarcity. with so little then only at the worst of times would you ever be tempted to use it.

but this idea is just that. an idea.

though if you really think about it, happiness in real life is the same. it doesn't last forever and it sure doesn't last for long.

it's merely temporary and lasting in a moment that would be chronicled in a memory. you can access the memory but it would never really be quite the same.

i guess even without magic, a bottle of happiness can exist. and there's really no sense in bottling it if you can seek happiness just by indulging in things that can make you happy.

though i also guess it would be hard when you're just feeling numb to the world.

things just couldn't get any simpler no matter how hard you try.