Imagine you’re six years old. It’s your very first day of school. In the yard there’s a huge pile of backpacks. Backpacks as far as the eye can see. Green ones, black ones, pink ones, blue ones.
In his welcome speech, the principal explains what’s next:
“Your journey through life is about to begin. We want you to get a head start, so each one of you will receive a happiness starter kit. Grab your backpack and off you go!”
There’s only one catch: Each backpack contains a different amount of happiness.
You line up with all the other kids, but you’re small and short and so you get a spot at the very end. One by one, the kids go to the pile, look around and grab a backpack.
When it’s your turn, there aren’t too many left, so you pick the one whose color you like the most. It feels light. Not too much happiness in there.
The second the last backpack is taken, the struggle for happiness begins. Some kids look into their backpacks and cry. Others start dancing.
Recess turns into a bazaar. Trades are arranged, negotiations are made. Money changes hands. “I give you X, you give me Y, and maybe we’ll both be happier.”
Meanwhile, you stand there, slightly perplexed. Watching. Waiting. The whole scene is chaos. It sure seems like a lot of hassle.
You look into your backpack again. It’s not much, but hey, it’s a start. Plenty to work with. Maybe you can stick with it for now.
A light backpack has its advantages too.
Every person on earth is carrying their backpack. There are two ways to deal with yours.
- You can trade and sell and shout and negotiate and fight until you get everything you want into your backpack.
- You can learn to want and make do with whatever’s inside the backpack you’ve gotten.
There once was a school kid who figured this out right then and there.
“When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy’. They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life.”
That kid’s name was John Lennon. Unlike most of us, he didn’t get confused when the fight for happiness began.
We think we have to enter the battle, simply because everyone else is struggling too. But you don’t. You can just keep standing there. Or leave the yard altogether.
And you’ll never have to worry about how much is in your backpack.
