The article,” Happiness: Enough Already,” by Sharon Begley, claims that depression is not a burden but an opportunity. True melancholy oozes originality. She confirms that “Abraham Lincoln was not hobbled by his dark moods bordering on depression, and Beethoven composed his later works in a melancholic funk. Vincent van Gogh, Emily Dickinson and other artistic geniuses saw the world through a glass darkly” (456). Some of the world’s most iconic, innovative people created their best work in a state not of pleasure, but pain. In a state of deep sadness, the inner mechanism of one’s mind becomes evident. A person is forced to not only feel and think sorrowfully, but to find a coping outlet. Consequently, this creates masterpieces a happy individual could not typically …show more content…
Otherwise, how would people know when they are happy? How could they appreciate it and stay happy, if they squander their time deliberately endeavoring to achieve happiness? Sadness, anger, fear: these emotions shape character. Negative emotions improve the ability to be genuinely happy. Claudia Wallis, the author of the article featured in Time Magazine, “The New Science of Happiness,” provides many different professional’s perspectives on what they believe happiness actually is and measured by, throughout her article. Wallis describes an experiment by a researcher, David Lykken, who experimented with 4,000 sets of twins, born from 1936 through 1955. He compared the happiness data of identical and fraternal twins, coming to the conclusion that, “…50% of one’s satisfaction with life comes from genetic programming” (Wallis). This proves that despite what polls and questionnaires claim, the capability and overall sense of happiness, varies from person to person. Every individual is unique, from appearance and personality, to the chemical makeup of their bodies. As a result of this, people handle stress contrarily, have different opinions, and feel different levels of anxiety and depression (Wallis). Deducing that, happiness cannot be accurately