The Good Life

Is it true that we all have an idea in our minds of what "the good life" looks like? Somewhere in the future, a perfect picture of what you would like your life to be. A reality that is curated completely to your wants and joy in life. I have been thinking a lot about my good life, and why we don't consider our current realities to be it. 

In a reading called "Cruel Optimism" by Lauren Berlin from pages 94-117, she ponders the idea of the good life. She asks the reader to think about the way that this wish functions in our everyday life, and the hope that we attach to someday achieving a new, better reality. The discussion that my feminist theory class had around this concept was the idea that it may actually be dangerous, in a sort. To constantly be wishing to not be where you are right now. "The good life" could even be argued is a product of a capitalist society, convincing people that even though you don't feel like you have enough right now, if you just work hard enough, maybe you will reach your destination. When you think of your good life, do things like: being financially stable, a nice house, a new car, maybe relocating to a warmer place come to mind? How much of your good life depends on your financial situation? Or having nicer or newer things? And the only way to achieve better financial success is to work more hours, or maybe even pick up another job. Our society has convinced us that a better life depends on the things that we own or the house that we live in. 

I am in no way saying that wanting a secure, stable future is a bad thing. We should all work towards the things that we want and believe that would add to our lives, but I am challenging you to think about how you could reach the good life without it depending on working yourself to death to have a little extra spending money. There are things that I would like to be true about my life in the future, of course. I do hope I am able to provide sufficiently for myself and my family, and of course, I dream about having floor to ceiling bookshelves in my home office. But even more importantly my good life looks like consistently positive mental health days, being surrounded by the people that I love and love me, feeling brave enough to continue being myself each and every day, using my imagination on a daily basis and finding joy in simply being alive. That is my good life. 

My wish for you all is that you find your good life every day. That there are little things that you see and feel throughout your days now that would confirm you have already found your good life. Being happy for no reason, and not putting pressure on yourselves to always have a reason as to where that happiness could come from. Feel it, live it, breathe it into your everyday life, and find yourself settling into the good life. 

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