Many people are unhappy because they have to do things they don’t want to do, which I find strange, because this never happens. Yet still many people are very unhappy about it. We could make a list of things like this, that never happen but still upset people:
-eternal damnation
-the collapse of the American monetary system
-other people thinking a lot about what a terrible people we are
-unexpectedly scandalous behavior on the part of celebrities
-completely forgetting things
-affordable health care*
You might find it easy to agree that none of the above will ever obtain, will ever be, and still think that people, namely you, have to do to things they don’t (you don’t) want to.
This is wrong.
Because you see, there is only one of you–the one that does things. There is not two of you, one that does something, and one that doesn’t want to do it. There is only one. Of you. That does what it wants. Always. Otherwise it would do something else.**
There, you should be happier now.***
———————
It has been brought to my attention that do we not actually in fact experience competing desires that exist, and does this not conflict with, nay, nay, perhaps even be evidence against my little unary claim here?
Yes, and no.
For the thusly advanced student then, I should add that we do sometimes not know what we want yet.
Once I wanted a hash brown, then I didn’t, then I did, then I didn’t, then I made up my mind and drove away from the McDonald’s.
At no point did I want more than one thing at once. Unless you count a breakfast burrito and . . . a hash brown.
Like together, in a bag. Maybe with an orange juice. Or some pancakes. It gets complicated.
———————-
*How I wanted to add “the use of the word Thou” to this list. Darn it all.
**And right now it is reading my blog. (This is just a joke. That’s true. True joke. There are those.)
**Maybe you were just upset because you were trying to count to one and failing. I have found that frustrating too. So I practice. One. One. One of stuff. One. Not more than one. Or less than one. Neither of those one, I mean two. One. One obtains. As One. Or 1 sometimes. (Actually neither. Sorry.)
Shoutout to the big TH: thich nhat hanh nah thich natht hthahnher