Phoenix : TPB || PJM 🔛

Chapter 15.1 : Eternal Quest

With the soon commencing seminar, the lights dimmed down over the audience as the host announced the name of the psychiatrist : the luminary of the very event, Doctor Ban Shim Jang.

All the eyes were focused towards the centering platform with loud applause and cheer for the grand entry of the medical professional.

Dan Hwa, flustered by it all, mumbled to herself, "Wait, that's... That's not Doctor Ban!"

She crosschecked her ticket with a little flash of light from her phone screen. Dan Hwa read the name and silently cursed at her careless drive.

Confused between very similar alphabets in the two names, she mistook the guest speaker of the seminar for Dr.Ban in a fleeting impulse.

Soon the guest on the stage, in his late sixties and dressed in a formal suit, broke down the topic of his seminar. Very immaculately; sophistication gleaming in his demeanor and speech.

"In my years of experience, I found countless lost souls come to me with a question : Why am I not happy? X, Y, Z are. Then, why not me?"
A faint murmur of unsettling opinions waved across the auditorium. While Dan Hwa saw herself more drawn to seek the answers to those questions than to discuss them with a stranger.

"And in a very casual sense, I forward the message that, one cannot objectify happiness," the guest continued with a grim yet calm tone.
"It comes from within, in one's own unique form. I tell them, the day you stop comparing your happy meters with the next person, will be the point where you take your first step towards a more positive life."

This time, the receivers were severely still, feeling called out and quietly introspected on his insights. The guest paused to take a gulp of air as he elegantly walked on the platform in an attempt to sight the far ends in either extremes. Clearly, a professional he was. No signs of awkward gestures and scripted movements were seen as he shifted the microphone from his left hand to the right. Spontaneously.

"I also met some believers of a simple formula. 'Success equals happiness.' As if life is a math problem that grumpy professor at school, or the neighborhood math genius could solve in a blink."

A few groups of people giggled and soft chuckles of few others were heard in the silence after the spellbinder's sprinkle of humor.

Grabbing the next resting second, the speaker remarked, "But, that's not how it works."

He continued a breath later, "Not all successes bring you ecstasy and not all failures bring you sorrow. So, if we theorize the earlier formula, it states that-we often believe that the wealthy, the rich, the privileged, are the happiest on earth."

The speaker had his own way to address the conventional beliefs of people without degrading their freedom of opinions. But to respectfully convince them to alter their views in a slightly more logical direction.

"It is time, we stop implying something entirely spiritual to something so materialistic." He added. "The famous misconception of economic well-being as a face of mental well-being is accountable here."

The guest speaker did not wait to come back around this time, "Luxury brings you comfort. It feeds your momentary desires. Food, shelter and all things essential for a comfortable lifestyle. Sure, prosperity improves the quality of life." He casually changed his direction before dropping the central issue of the discussion.

"But, what really is a 'happy' life?" The old figure halted his verbs, hurling the heavy question at the crowd. Chills ran through a few bodies while a few others were incapable of projecting emotions at all.