Let a little sadness in, too much happiness is bad for you

The Buddhists have a saying: to know great joy you must first know suffering (or words to that effect), balance to put it another way. So how the hell did we end up with a Prozac nation where being anything other than happy is seen as a mental disorder?
I’m not talking about people being depressed because that extreme is equally bad, but simply those who appear vaguely downcast or serious. A classic example of this attitude was my old workmates who always used to get concerned by the serious look of concentration on my face. As far as I’m concerned, we don’t go to work to be happy yet we all seem to expect it as a pre-requisite. Reed is currently marketing itself as the surefire way to week-long job satisfaction – no job can offer that.
Then there’s my personal favourite: relationships. Hollywood has a lot to answer for with its happy ever afters but I can tell you from experience that it’s the fastest way to becoming a bag of neuroses. There’s no chance of life resembling Disney or any number of chick flicks. Sorry girls, but that Mr Perfect doesn’t exist. All these romantic notions are all very well and good but don’t you think that being ecstatically happy would get rather wearing at times.
Music is trying its best to be an antidote despite the ssuspicion or mockery piled on most ‘serious’ bands (Radiohead and Nirvana to name but two). But nothing compares to the criticism piled on Emo, the grim music almost exclusively for teenagers. The Daily Mail attacked it with a gusto normally reserved for Muslim immigrants, accusing it of being responsible for making teenagers suicidal purely due to it’s less than happy nature. They can’t seem to deal with the fact that these same kids want something they can relate their daily lives to – lives which aren’t all roses and sunshine.
On my desk at work there’s a photo of a minibus bearing the slogan ‘chant Hare Krishna and be happy’ – if only life was that simple. The Buddhists have got it right; besides, I don’t want to be happy all the time – it’s not healthy and also tiring. If you want to be happy all the time, then that’s OK, but you’ll feel so much better if you let a little sadness in your life.