ObDisclaimer: I only know your mom through what you've posted (here and elsewhere). I claim no specific insights. :)
"Are you happy?" is a hard question to answer, in part because it can be answered on several levels: are you happy right now in this moment (value estimate), are you happy with the direction(s) that your life is going in right now (slope estimate), are you happy with where you think that your plans/actions will probably cause you to end up (asymptote value estimate)? Obviously the answers to these questions may be wildly divergent, and it's not always obvious which one is meant.
This is complicated by the fact that most people's lives are beset by a bunch of niggling little problems at the best of times, even if you might overall describe yourself as happy (in the second or third senses above).
One could ask that question as an invitation for you to vent about the things that you're not happy about (in any of the above senses).
I could also imagine someone asking that question as a sort of social-interaction tic, i.e., "I want to connect with you and talk about things that are important to you and/or to me, but I don't know how to do that right now other than by asking you this incredibly open-ended question."
Good luck. I have confidence that you will continue to find happiness, and even joy...even if it's not necessarily always apparent in the moment, or easy to explain (although one of the things that I like about you is that you are good at expressing and explaining and exploring and probably other things beginning with 'X' :) ). Say hi to Hypo for me when the arrival happens. :)
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"Are you happy?" is a hard question to answer, in part because it can be answered on several levels: are you happy right now in this moment (value estimate), are you happy with the direction(s) that your life is going in right now (slope estimate), are you happy with where you think that your plans/actions will probably cause you to end up (asymptote value estimate)? Obviously the answers to these questions may be wildly divergent, and it's not always obvious which one is meant.
This is complicated by the fact that most people's lives are beset by a bunch of niggling little problems at the best of times, even if you might overall describe yourself as happy (in the second or third senses above).
One could ask that question as an invitation for you to vent about the things that you're not happy about (in any of the above senses).
I could also imagine someone asking that question as a sort of social-interaction tic, i.e., "I want to connect with you and talk about things that are important to you and/or to me, but I don't know how to do that right now other than by asking you this incredibly open-ended question."
Good luck. I have confidence that you will continue to find happiness, and even joy...even if it's not necessarily always apparent in the moment, or easy to explain (although one of the things that I like about you is that you are good at expressing and explaining and exploring and probably other things beginning with 'X' :) ). Say hi to Hypo for me when the arrival happens. :)