Centuries of happiness, or not

Pardon my musings on the pursuit of happiness tour.  We're headed to a few of the "happiest " countries on earth.. But.. It's not clear in my mind yet how to define happiness...
  It is a human condition..relative..subject to lots of conditions....and timing.
 A few hundred years ago the Declaration of Independence proffered the prologue for the big show on the happy stage that was to become America.  "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

Those words became etched in the foundation of our nation, but it always made me wonder if  at the time of the writing the rebels vision was enhanced by a Back to the Future trip in Doc Brown's DeLorean or if what they were expressing as a definition of pursuing happiness, for instance, may have been felt differently back then.

In the northeast, in the winter, in the 1700's pure happiness could have been achieved by having a pile of wood large enough to heat the digs til April or maybe a frozen deer carcass big enough to feed the family for a while hanging in the shed.

We live different lives than the Colonialists who penned the Declaration.  Did Thomas Jefferson ever envision a US president pursuing happiness on a daily basis in 280 characters?   Not sure the pursuit of happiness declaration over 4 centuries sustained comparable meaning. The criteria used in the 2018 World Happiness Report focused on  measurement of six key variables: income, healthy life expectancy, social support, freedom, trust and generosity are more than slightly different by definition now than when our pursuit of happiness was launched.  The 158 countries that are measured mostly didn't exist back then.

All that aside, we are still in it to explore and confer on happiness, in ourselves, families, community, state and nation...and world.. as we head down our path in the hunt for smiles.

Mean time..we're in Donabate at my fav beach hotel gazing out on the Irish sea riffled by a passing shower, siping tea. I'm crosswording.. Sue reading.. while absorbing the ionic darts of happiness finding their way to spark our smile senses.