'Happy' is Not a Zero Sum Game

If my smile fills a desert, must it drain another's ocean? If the cold winds of San Francisco's summer remove joy from my house, is that bliss deposited elsewhere?

I say no, and quite the opposite: happy begets happy, in my worldview.

If I am open to Happy, open to Love, I am also open to vituperation and condescension and even derision. Those are the rules of the Universe. And open thus, Distress and Upset might come calling.

But not paranoia. Not mistrust. Not suspicion. Definitely not doubt.

There are worse things than being wrong, than being hurt. Like never having had the opportunity to be right about someone else because you were afraid to take a chance.

Much ado about nothing, apropos of nothing, the words of Shakespeare float in like a cooling breeze, keeping me on the windy side of care:

The count is neither sad, nor sick, nor merry, nor
well; but civil count, civil as an orange, and
something of that jealous complexion.