Pursuit of Happiness, Part 4

So far we've looked at the height and width of happiness, leaving us with the length or depth as our remaining dimension. So what is the length or depth of happiness? For reasons that will quickly become obvious, I'd prefer to use the world length in this situation, because of its double meaning. The length of happiness refers simply to how long it lasts.
We've talked already about how the thrill of riding a roller coaster is a a reasonably high bit of happiness, but it is not a piece of happiness that lasts very long. If you're a coaster addict and you truly enjoyed a ride, then the natural thing for you to do upon exiting the coaster is to dash around to the entrance to ride it again. I can remember a couple of times in my life when I actually didn't have to get off a roller coaster since no one was waiting to get on. That's sweet!
But why do we dash around to the entrance again? If the thrill were not simply high but long, we'd walk out of the ride exit quite contented. "Well, that was great. Maybe I'll try it again next year!" we might say. But we don't.
On the other hand, when I walk out of a pizza buffet, I don't ever dash around from exit to entrance, eager to start my eating all over again. The thrill of the pizza, unlike the thrill of the roller coaster, lasts for a while. Last semester, I ate at a pizza buffet just about every Thursday for lunch. Once a week is enough pizza buffets for me, but come Thursday, I was ready to hit the slices again.
What lasts longer than a pizza buffet? What happiness have you ever experienced that remains in force for more than a few days? If you buy a new computer, you're probably ecstatic about it for a few days, but gradually the thrill wears off. The same thing goes for a new car or a house. There just aren't very many things that make you happy and keep you happy. The Kansas City Chiefs won the Super Bowl in 1969. For Chiefs fans, that happiness has long ago worn off. In fact, although that victory was before my time, I'm pretty sure that it didn't stick very long at all.
We now have three dimensions to our happiness. The next step is to explore the world of solid happiness. But that's for another day.