Freddie Mercury, one of the biggest legends of music in the seventies and eighties. His music still surviving as legendary and the name of his group ('Queen') still carved in the heart of so many fans.
Today I saw a 1983 interview with him, when he was 37 years old. At that time he was at the top of his career, already 13 years with the group, Queen, and already super wealthy. The interview was interesting: a lot about his music and how songs were written and how the group interacted. Near the end of the interview, he mentioned that music was one thing in his life, but more important still was his happiness and he immediately qualified the happiness as making more money and buying more things.
That made me sad for a moment. The trap of compulsive thinking that happiness merely lies in making more money and buying more things is a fallacy. Research has shown that a certain level of wealth is an important part of happiness, but beyond that level, more wealth and material stuff does not make people more and more happy.
I have personally experienced material gains, which are big enough AND times of selfless service, which were also of a good size. I have ZERO doubt which of the two brings true deep seated happiness and which of the two brings a fleeting feeling of superficial happiness.
I think the key to get to true happiness is awareness. We have to reflect and think about our experiences. It is awareness about peace, beauty, Love (the one with capital 'L'), creativity that really brings along the peace of mind, the REAL good feelings we can experience as humans in our life.
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