Having is a disease.  Not literally having, but more like wanting.  The wanting of things and/or experiences that will somehow magically transform your life into a happy one.

It’s all a load of bullshit.

The system preaches these things, shoves them in our face and demands that if we’re not having then we’re not happy.  And we buy into it, because it looks so awesome.  If only I…

There’s a better approach.  Simple to attain, but not necessarily easy.  It’s simply reframing your view and seeing the truth.  If having something equals happiness, then not having it equals unhappiness, right?  Is that the math we agree upon?  Good.  Now let’s fuck it up and find the truth.

Life doesn’t happen in black and white.  There’s no binary yes or no going on (unless you’re talking about sex, but that’s a different subject).  Everything is grey.  We put meaning on meaningless things and events.  The meaning translates to emotions.  Then the emotions make it real.

What’s really going on are three separate, mutually exclusive operations.

  • Events.  These can be anything from thoughts to actual taking-place-in-the-real-world-now events.  By themselves, they really don’t mean anything.  They just are.  2 + 2 = 4.  The apple is red.  Some asshole just cut me off.  I’d fuck her.  Etc…  Facts, if you will.
  • Meanings.  The translation of events, in our own fucked up, totally biased way.  Meanings are 100% unique across individuals.  Two people witnessing the same event will place completely different meanings on that event.  It can even be the same thought.  Unlike a calculator that will always translate 2 + 2 to 4, we can translate it to be anything.  In my world it’s 34783.99999999999, that’s how fucked up I am.
  • Emotions.  This is the result of the meanings.  We feel happy, sad, indifferent, scared, etc.  Then, we feed these emotions back into the pipeline and put meaning on the emotions, which could lead to behavior (and usually does).

I imagine in the wild, this system serves us well.  A lion pops out of nowhere, you translate that to “danger,” then you feel scared and either run away or get ready to fight.  But in our cushiony, self imposed comfort life, not having a Ferrari, or hell, even being denied a free scoop of sprinkles on your ice cream cone, can lead to all sorts of ridiculous, ineffective, nonsensical emotions that we feed off of and drive ourselves insane.

Fuck that.  It’s much better to see it for what it is.  Having a Ferrari doesn’t equal happiness, just as not having one doesn’t equal unhappiness.  It’s time to realize the truth:  that you already have everything you need.  Right now.  This instance.  Everything you need in life to be happy, fulfilled, whatever, you’ve already got.  Even if you’re covered in shit, pissing yourself in the streets, living in a cardboard box drunk ass piece of shit, you need nothing more than an overhaul in thinking to be happy.

And that’s the fucking truth.