Transcript
A (0:01)
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B (0:35)
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C (1:27)
Lemonade I'm Gretchen Rubin, and this is a little happier. Recently, I was having some issues with my computer. I use my desktop, my laptop, or both many times every day, so this problem was really weighing me down. Those issues are fixed now and I am so happy. I take my word processor, my email, my Internet access for granted. But when they aren't available as easily as usual, I realize how much these tools add to my happiness and how much they contribute to my ability to work easily and smoothly. However, I expect that before many days have passed, I'll take my tech setup for granted once again. In college, a friend told me about what he called the lost wallet syndrome. No matter what's happening in your life, he explained, if you lose your wallet, you think, how happy I would be if only I could find my wallet. I'd be happy forever. But then if you find it, you're happy for about two minutes, and then you're right back where you started. One of the unhappy truths about human nature is that it's hard for us to appreciate what we have until it's gone. It's only when we lose something or fear that we might lose it, like email, electricity or air conditioning, or worse, our health, that it becomes obvious how mightily such things contribute to our happiness and comfort. So often it takes loss or fear of loss to make us appreciate what we had. There are times in the lives of most of us, observed William Edward Hartpole Leckie, when we would have given all the world to be as we were. But yesterday, though that yesterday had passed over us unappreciated and unenjoyed. For that reason, one of the enduring aims for my Happiness project is to appreciate what I have for my life as it is right now. I've long been haunted by the words of the French writer Colette. In Robert Phelps's book Belle Saison, he quotes Colette remarking, after watching a film that had been made about her, what a beautiful life. It's a pity I didn't notice it sooner. I don't want to look back at the end of my life or after some great calamity and think how happy I was then, if only I'd realized it. I want to appreciate how happy I am to know where my wallet is without having to lose it. I'm Gretchen Rubin and I hope this makes your week a little happier.