It Feels Good to Feel Bad

And then we were happy all the time, and no one bothered to ask how we were doing. There was no mystery in our tones of voices, and nonverbal communication ran out of impact. It's not that verbal communication mattered more--instead, we just stopped listening. Smiling corpses sauntering about, living other peoples' dreams.

You wanted to be happy all the time but you didn't want to forget sadness. You wanted to stop feeling pain, and in the process you stopped feeling pleasure. The sun always shone, so your plants dried out and your grand, romantic gestures capsized in a solar reverie.

Funerals stopped focusing on the grief-filled celebration of a life passed, and we now congratulate ourselves on the lives we're still living. Hunger is a covenant and disease a blessing. Loss is gain and poverty is richness. Failure is merely the success of not being burdened with an ego. A toast to all we do well, all we could do better, and all we never did that we said we'd do.

And then we were happy all the time, and we ran out of reasons to live.