Why?
I have a question:
Why, when I was walking through the Westin Inn Third Floor area, did I see a group of men (maybe 28+) with a bunch of plushies and think to myself 'Thats really cute'? Why did I then think of going to the Dealers Den and getting my own plushie? Why did I see fursuiters and think of scritching them? Why did I want to buy artwork of anthropomorphic animals? Why did I want a tail?
What makes us Furs think in this general direction? How come we act like this? What drives these very enjoyable urges?
Yeah, I lied. Thats not one question, that eight. 
I actually don't know the answer to these questions. And for those who did do similar things, do you know why you did these things? 
Just some food for the brain.
you where probably in a subconscious state of mind like I some times am I have free will to enter and exit it though and I some times also say to myself what the hell was I thinking cause some times I do odd stuff like mayo salami and pickles sandwich (least favorite) that's when I get stuck in the subconscious state and I have to have a ton of sleep to keep control when I force myself into it for things such as dinner, driving familiar routes, and playing certain games I sometimes pull out games I haven't played in many years like hmmm... one time I installed an old Tonka game into my computer and you have to admit it was creepy cause I like to play stuff like Mortal combat, Warcraft 3, Starcraft, rise of legends, and command and conquer. and I only come out of it when some thing shocks me out of it like someone yelling at me or a bright light O.o go figure (guess I still have some work to do), but I still keep my strong feelings of common sense like not to run into the ditch where to turn and combos on games. I can rack up about 20 games in Tekken tag torment before something peculiar knocks me out of it like a flashy cut scene*.* I tried to tell some one, but they just laughed and laughed ^^
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my tormented soul has laid waste to these lands and all who oppose me for what seems like an eternity..... now leave or suffer the consequences
i used to wonder about things like that, but then i figured that it was just better just not to. so i'm a little weird oh well heheh..
it was fun going to the movies with 2 other friends to see the pokemon movie when it first came out. altho didnt feel to out of place, we were the only 3 people for a firday 8pm showing. heck i even still have my old pokemon bed sheets...
Why not wonder about things like that? Wouldn't it be nice to know your self better then you do now?
i just don't think that to know my self better i need to question the things that i like or the the things that make me happy.
i do however wonder why i fear the things that i do, like spiders. there smaller then me and where i live the deadly ones are extreamly rare, but you get even the littlest one on me or near me just get out of my way because i will flip out.
But if you know why those things make you happy, you can make your self happy more.
I do believe the better question is: Who cares why?
Personally, I stopped trying to rationalize years ago when I realized the myriad of factors that could have played a role in loving being a fur as I do. To name the list of reasons would be dooming this thread to pages of text.
So in the end, does it matter why? I don't think so as long as it makes us happy for whatever reasons we may remember or forget.
My question to you and Chief is 'Does It matter that it doesn't matter?'
Its nice to know the answer to questions. If I am questioning why these things make me happy, its because I see it as a way to figure out new ways to make me happy.
To put it simply:
If I know not only what makes me happy, but why it makes me happy. then I am one step closer to figuring out new things that make me happy.
I sometimes wonder about things like that, but I agree with NallTWD, it doesn't really matter why as long as you're happy.
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Don't argue with me, you know I always... Oh Look! Clover!
*Proceedes to graze on the clover*
Happiness, like Humor, is a very flimsy, ethereal thing; it just doesn't stand up to analysis. If you try and analyze why a joke is funny, it ceases to be so; the same with pleasure.
Pleasure is such a transitory thing; you must savor and enjoy the sensation, without looking critically at it, or you will not only miss it, but to a certain degree, supress it.
Yes, I know it sounds a little irrational - but there are many experiences, emotions, states-of-being that are that way. Right now, all I can think of to properly express it is a bunch of metaphors.
There are some things which, to see them properly in this world, you have to see them out of the corner of your eye, so-to-speak. If you try to look directly at them, they blend into the shadows, and you can't see them at all, and you begin to doubt that they were ever there at all. Pay them no direct attention, and they will practically come out and sit in your lap, like a cat.
You can't catch a unicorn by pursuit; but if you are patient (and moderately fortunate), one will come to you.
Now - you find certain activities or events bring you pleasure; do not pursue pleasure, but rather pursue thos activities, and partake of the pleasure that comes with it - Slip into the moment, and allow yourself to BECOME the pleasure; practice that, and try to advance to GIVING pleasure, or creating it for others - but do not ANALYSE it.
It has taken me the better part of my life to learn that much, starting with what you have asked; and I still find it difficult to embrace what I have learned...
...But when I do - I know brief moments of great happiness.
I have to agree with the way you put it in a psychological perspective. you shouldn't over analyse what brings you pleasure instead you should explore what brings you pleasure, like, if you like anthro, then do you pleasures around anthro, analysing it kicks in the left side of your brain that controls thought, organisation and general categorisation, when you categorise the pleasure then it loses its "wonder" so to say, and ceases to be as much, that is where the saying the sum of the parts is greater then the sum of the whole. all in all the human mind is hard to understand even though we inhabit our "shell" we still do not know how we will react to a stimulus, that is why physiology is constantly changing. now this is a very romantic point of view, with its general saying "if it feels good do it" that is what the "magical wonders" of life are is the sheer bliss of ignorance, that is where happiness comes from if you go that deep. this is i, believe, the answer to your question but i am afraid i cant make it any simpler.
Actually, I find ignorance quite the opposite of bliss! Not understanding something and not being able to know is frustrating for a mind that is constantly interrogative. My mind is geared toward seeking understanding, and it is the discovery of a satisfactory answer that brings me delight. But is it truly transitory? Or do I hold that satisfaction in a different way that a simple physical response? I must look back at answers I've found to questions before, and yes it is still pleasing that I know. Many of these things I know now still do not lose their wonder, for all the years I have known them, simply because I am always amazed that they are what they are. And also, the answers to the questions I analyze always lead to even more fascinating questions. In so thinking, I am in a constant flow of discovery, buffered by a past memory of answers. As such I find pleasure in always seeking to know and learning more about the many things that interest me. The loss of that ability would be the most crushing thing to me.
Pleasure being subjective as it is, the duration of it may also be subjective and dependent on ones own mental conditioning and neurochemical/synaptic systems. For some, I suppose knowing every detail of why they are furry would be disappointing. For myself, I've already discovered some answers, and as expected those answers have brought up a slew of new questions. And so I wait, albeit impatiently, for more evidence so that I may one day say, "Oh! So that's what it was!" and enjoy the lasting sensation of having gained yet another fragment of comprehending the mysteries of everything.
I think we cannot imagine how we would feel if indeed we did know everything there was to know. Such a state is so far beyond what a human mind can, in its limited life and functional capacity, accomplish that I must accept that as the one futility in which man has dabbled with little effect: comprehension of the infinite. A limited mind cannot even ponder the musings of a limitless one, for inevitably the shortcomings of the finite mind will creep into the model of the infinite and thus invalidate it.
I look at Big Bang models in much the same way. We have incredible shortcomings in all models simply because of the facts that we can never know what came before the Big Bang, why the Big Bang even occurred in the first place, or what might have been outside of its boundaries. Even now, does any theorist have any truly plausible explanation for what our universe might be expanding 'into' or 'though' or even 'blending with' at its boundaries, boundaries we may not even be able to observe if acceleration has red-shifted them beyond our view?
You can only make assumptions of something when you know the conditions that can cause it. A huge fire can be tracked back to a match because we know matches cause fires. A planetary nebula can be tracked back to a white dwarf because we know an old star sheds its outer layers to leave a nebula and a white dwarf. Yet what can make a universal singularity? In that query, we see how far beyond our knowledge the universe remains.
I must add that the quest for knowledge is what has led us to where we are today. Would we even be reading these messages if some searching mind had not chosen to find answers to questions of electricity, information storage, engineering, and many other things required to make these computers and the systems over which we communicate?
Ignorance generates a very limited form of bliss, and ignorance has its end as does he bliss it generates. Accumulating knowledge never ends, because there seems always more to know. If there is truly an end, a point at which I have learned everything, I should like to find it and see how I will feel. If I know everything, will I be satisfied, or will I feel despair? There is truly the last question! For it cannot be answered until you know everything else there is to know!
And this single post, albeit long, explains exactly why I ask these questions. Why would something lose its wonder if I figure out why it works? Why would something stop being magical if I knew what made it magical? I know how a computer works, does that stop me from thinking a computer is a wonderful piece of machinery?
a question like this will differ from person to person.
As you have the need to search for the meaning of the things that make you happy, me personal just accept what makes me happy. If i one day search for the meaning does it mean i will like it more or less, probably not. For me i think it would be a waste of time to find the answer. I like to cuddle up to my big stuffed fox at night when i goto bed. It makes me feel comfortable and more at easy at the end of a bad day. I don't question it.
Now when it comes to other things, ie. games, computers and what not, i like to see what makes them tick. to look at a games source code and see how it actually works, that knowledge i do like to have, but if i like the game or not, i ither like it or i don't.
comfort perhaps, none of that stuff hurts anyone, so why not? ^^
check out my art ^^
http://www.furaffinity.net/user/dj-moogle/