Happiness.
The other day, I bumped in to a friend that I hadn’t seen in a couple of months. It was quite unexpected on both parts, but welcomed. As one does, I asked him how he’s been and his answer made me perplexed as well as amused.
“I woke up today too, so it must be a good day!” He said and smiled. Then he went on to say that there’d been a real struggle with his papers at the migration agency. Both he and his partner had been struggling with that for about half a year now.
As I started to think about that initial sentence, I realised that there is so much to it. On one part it’s gratefulness. On another part it’s not taking life for granted, nor sleep. On a third part, it’s showing consciousness of all of the things in life that are appreciated.
What it eventually comes down to, at least for me, is expectations. He doesn’t take waking up for granted. He doesn’t expect anything, and then gets so much more than that. And he will, each time he gets anything.
Yuval Noah Harari writes: “When things improve, expectations balloon, and consequently even dramatic improvements in conditions might leave us as dissatisfied as before.” And that’s exactly right. The individuals who cheat this mechanism will stay out of the long arms expectations try to grasp us with.
And they’re rewarded with happiness.