Brain Food #800: The price of happiness

Lessons on what might still be by The Little Prince

Thoughts of the day

Welcome to my 800th post, and thank you for being part of this journey.

There are three ways in which gratitude can be framed. Gratitude is about what you have, that you need, what you don’t have, that is undesirable, and what might still be, that is exciting and hopeful. Today’s post is about the future.

Looking forward to a future event we are excited about carries the sweetness of anticipation. We can create this sensation by making a list of the things we look forward to. Mentally, this is not in order to transfer ourselves to the future, so as to avoid the present, but to feel grateful for what it still holds.

Anticipation comes up time and time again in children’s books, not because children’s books are delusional, but because they show children the power of possibility before their minds are tarnished by the responsibilities of adulthood.

Having something to look forward to can be an act of consolidating our past with our future, without, of course, allowing our expectations, or magical thinking, to let us down. I look forward to sending more, hopefully stimulating, thoughts your way.

What could be there if you let yourself think of it?

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In Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince, the Fox asks the main character to announce the time of his arrival in advance, for knowing he will be coming will amplify his happiness: “For instance, if you come at four in the afternoon, I'll begin to be happy by three. The closer it gets to four, the happier I'll feel.”

But, the Fox continues, highlighting the price of happiness, by allowing ourselves to be happy, to anticipate something, we are also always opening ourselves up to the potential of loss: “By four I'll be all excited and worried; I'll discover what it costs to be happy! But if you come at any old time, I'll never know when I should prepare my heart...”

The preparation and the anticipation become as important as the occurrence of the act itself.

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