Happiness

Have you ever noticed that there are some people in this world who never seem to be happy? There are just some people who are always sad or frustrated or angry. When you browse blogs across the Web like I do, you often see this. There are people out there who are filled with so much angst, sadness, frustration, or hate. They hate their jobs, hate their living situation, hate their friends, hate their family, hate the car they drive, hate the way they look, hate everything else, and in general hate themselves. And I'm not talking about people who have these individual hates. I'm talking about people who hate all of these things at once. On the surface, you look at them and think that they must have a sad and miserable life. But eventually sad and miserable turns into pathetic. Sometimes you want to shake these people and ask them if there is anything in their life that they love and appreciate. Sometimes you want to just slap them and remind them that sometimes their problems are trivial compared to the real problems of the world. Sure, everyone hits a rough patch in life, and there are certainly plenty of people out there who truly live a hard life. But sometimes when you read the things that some people write, all you can do is shake your head in disbelief. When a grown adult writes about things and concerns that a thirteen-year-old would write about, you want to just shake them.

Everyone has their moments of moodiness. I certainly can't deny that I'm moody and slightly manic and bipolar. Everyone gets the blues or the "mean reds" as Holly Golightly put it in Breakfast at Tiffany's. I know that I complain about all of the idiots of the world who annoy me. I know that I often write about being exhausted because of work. But, unlike some of the people out there in the world, I at least don't hate my life or hate myself. In fact, I think that my life is pretty darn good and I think I'm pretty darn cool. I can sometimes be a big dork and a geek, but I have my moments of cool. In my mind, I live my own charmed life. I have an exciting job. I live in a cool little apartment in a cool city. I have a wonderful family. I have beautiful friends. I might not have a million dollars, the perfect body or looks, that Tuscan villa or that house on the shore of a Greek isle, or any other secret desires that I want, but so what. For whatever negatives I might have in my life, they are far outnumbered by the positives, and, for that, I consider myself fortunate.

I'm fortunate, but I know that I'm not a special case. That is why I get so frustrated and annoyed when I read certain blogs, and, like I was saying, I sometimes wish I can reach through the monitor and shake the person writing those blogs. Everyone has the potential to be happy and fortunate. But it's not going to happen if they sit alone on the couch and wallow in self-pity. They just have to change their thinking. (Wow! I really sounded like Oprah or Dr. Phil for a second there!) There has to be something in their life that makes them happy. There has to be something that they appreciate and cherish. If there isn't, well, I suppose all we can do is feel sorry for them...and feel thankful that we're not that person!