The Luxury of Discontent

Hate To Break It To You is a recurring feature wherein we dispense succinct home truths that everyone could benefit from facing up to, unpleasant as they may be.

Photo by boskizzi

I’ve come to realize that being able to indulge in discontent over one’s life circumstances is a privilege, especially for those of in Gen Y. Sounds like a no-brainer of a revelation, but you don’t really think about how good you have it on the navel-gazing front until you’re faced with those who are living life at the elemental level – grinding it out, just getting through their 24/7 while holding the pieces together, no energy left to articulate their angst in eloquent and itemized detail. They do what they have to do because it needs to be done and there’s no one else to do it. The end.

I’m not trying to guilt trip you with the whole there are starving children in Africa who’d kill for your broccoli, so eat up trope. Telling people not to bemoan their lots in life because there are others who have it worse is on par with telling someone with depression to just buck up or advising an anorexic to just eat a steak. Insensitive and it doesn’t work. You feel what you feel and it is what it is. And I’ve spent months exhorting people to accept that fact and live with it.

No, what I’m doing is simply encouraging you to realize that having the space to contemplate, to brood, to feel melancholy or adrift is a luxury that not everyone has. And instead of feeling guilty about this fact, commit to using your privilege in the most personally productive manner possible. Examine the full scope of your options and courses of actions and understand that while some of them might involve sacrifice or deprivation, that doesn’t make them less valid. Acknowledge the wealth inherent in even having options in the first place.