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Nihilistic Despair? Try To Enjoy The Little Things
“Enjoy the little things in life because one day you’ll look back and realize they were the big things” -Kurt Vonnegut
Quotes like this are nice but quickly fill us with a certain dread; the fact that we have, and will likely continue, to live for the future, attached to seemingly unshakeable contracts, deadlines and aspirations. We sense that our kids smile, the dog greeting you at the door and those flowers on the way to work deserve our attention. Unfortunately, they rarely demand it. Instead, days go by and we find ourselves bound to a world of abstraction, alien to the simple joys that make living worth it.
Cuddling, afternoon bike rides in childhood, a brief encounter with a hummingbird. These moments don’t enhance our job prospects. They certainly don’t keep the economy going — that is unless an advertising company can pin them to a certain product; persuading us into the tragic idea that the acquisition of a certain material is necessary for such moments to emerge. The truth is they’re right here at all times. The world is enough.
