The View from a Drawbridge

I saw that tag line in a Facebook advertisement for therapy, and it made me think of a conversation I had with a friend from Burma. He said, “In the West, you think you deserve happiness, so you get upset, depressed, anxious or bitter if you don’t have it. In the East, we don’t expect happiness, so we’re delighted when it comes our way.”

Like many things, it’s all a matter of perspective. And it is a good question. Why do we think we deserve to be happy? What makes us so special? Do we think we were born with some sort of golden ticket? “Happiness, Admit One.”

It’s natural to strive for happiness. But it might be healthier to look at it as a gift rather than a right. That way, when you don’t have it, you don’t feel like it’s some sort of failure on your part, and when you do have it, you’ll feel like you’ve won a prize, and can appreciate it all the more.