New theistic chew toys wanted!

[Spongebob]

This is why I said it was difficult to define.  Happiness is not an exact concept.  Is the absence of suffering "happiness"?  Perhaps to some.  Is it rather elation with life?  I'm not going to pretend to define it for anyone other than myself.

That's a bit of a copout. We can define it generally, at least the pieces involved, like emotions and circumstances, enough to have a discussion about it without being in danger of prescribing how people should live. Otherwise, we talk past each other like, "unless you associate contentment and peace with happiness." ...yes. Peace and contentment ARE a part of the definition of happiness.

But I at least understand better what you are saying about the modern versus past definitions of happiness.

If you don't believe me, find a group of like minded people and have an open and frank discussion.  I expect you'll find more diversity in how you feel about happiness than you will find consistency.  For one thing, if you ask just about any person who's living a somewhat well adjusted life if they are happy, you will get a response that's easily in the %90+ range.  Even if you ask people whom you know to be miserable.  Why is that?  And there will be some who surprise you because you were sure they were happy but it turns out they judge their life differently and don't identify as a happy person.  The subject has more layers than most people realize.  This is why there's such a gigantic industry based on this one ephemeral concept.  I think artists come closer than any learned physician in actually capturing the essence of happiness.