TO THE RIGHT OF PLEASANT

Here is the spectrum:

boring...tedious...unpleasant..satisfactory...pleasant...exciting...thrilling

Time to be honest. During the past week, month, year, how often did what you did fall to the right of pleasant? How often was it exciting/thrilling? Not merely OK, or good or nice or even fun, but exhilarating, stirring, rousing, gripping, engrossing? Frequently? Rarely?

And therein, in my view, lies the source of so much of the unhappiness so many feel, the root of why life may not seem to "measure up" for so many, the frequency of stress, psychological breakdowns, anger, violence.

As a society, we have settled for a life that sets "pleasant" and not "thrilling" as the goal...and the standard of success. Routinized activity in and outside of work are the norm. Safety has preempted daring, the comfort of the familiar does not abide the uncertainty of exploration and adventure. The fear of death outstrips the joy of life.

All the pills we take, all the psychiatric counseling we get, will do little if anything to bring us the happiness we crave. If we settle for mediocrity, it is a mediocre emotional state of mind that we will earn. A pleasant one, perhaps, but nothing more.

Charles Kingsley said it well: "We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us really happy is something to be enthusiastic about".

Well, I don't know if that is all we need, but it is certainly something we need. Fervor generated by excitement, not blandness generated by pleasantries, is the root of enthusiasm.