Tuesday 18 July 2017

If you're happy and you know it...

2 minute read

I was separating my laundry today and noticed that the song "If you're happy and you know it clap your hands" was looping relentlessly in my mind. I ignored the song at first, but when it wouldn't go away I started thinking about the lyrics. 

"If you're happy and you know it..."

Well how stupid are those lyrics?, I thought. Of course you'd know it. How could you not know that you were happy? 

Then I started to remember times in my life when something bad happened, or more specifically when some taken-for-granted privilege, like good health, the company of a friend or basic financial stability suddenly and unexpectedly dropped out of my life, making me realise how happy I had previously been unbeknownst to myself. I thought about films and books in which a fall from grace through loss of privilege acted as a catalyst for positive change in the character (and concluded that there are many such films and books, despite my total inability to conjure up a single example of this narrative). 

Then I started thinking about all of the privileges that I take for granted, like speaking a language that is spoken by about 350 million other people and is a primary language in over 50 countries, being able to wear runners to work, being young(ish), being able to comprehend reality in a reasonably consistent way, being able to shower a few times a week, and so on. 

I remembered reading about what happiness is, and the consensus within the psychological community that happiness is achieved by reducing the gap between expectations and reality. I remembered reading about other interesting things like locus of control, the hedonic treadmill and the general futility of chasing extrinsic satisfiers to achieve internal equilibrium. 

Having reflected on these things for a very short time, I think that those lyrics harbor a sort of simple, unassuming wisdom. 

If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands.