Desire and tragedy
In one of my first postings I wrote about money and happiness. This is what I wondered: “Then why do I (you?) always want to have new gadgets, a new laptop, a new hifi, a new.......?” Because goods, money don’t make a person happy. The answer was, peering over the fence and seeing one’s neighbour having a bubblebath or something, makes one want to have one too. I found another explanation: Desire. According to George Bernard Shaw there are two great tragedies in life: Not getting what you want and getting what you want. Not getting what you want speaks for itself, it sucks. Getting what you want makes you think where’s the tragedy here? Getting what you desire leaves you nothing to desire left, and that’s a tragedy too. Because desire according to GBS is what makes a human being alive. If you’ve got nothing to desire anymore you’re a pitiable person. You need something to wish for to be alive. On the other hand, we know that the more you want things, often the unhappier you are. So, the bottomline is, be also moderate in your wanting stuff, gadgets, etc!