A Little Bit of Materialism

I’m about to give you a generic sentence on what generates the greatest feeling ever, and bear with it because perhaps I can convince you that my argument has merit and we’ll both be a little happier today.

The best feeling is being right.

Go ahead and raise your hand and answer me a question true. I’m not writing this response to gratify you, to augment your vanity and pride in your very own mass of brain cells. I care more about being right in the moment. I’m pointing out that feeling when you play that song or read that one beautiful piece of rhetoric. I’m pointing out that realization that, damn, I made a good choice in clicking on this or buying that. I’m pointing out rapping all the lyrics of Kendrick Lamar’s DNA, hitting the final move to your spontaneous dance routine at home alone so hard you want to sign up for hip hop classes ASAP, and getting that one run at the end of Panic! At the Disco’s Saturday Night right.

I’m underscoring the importance of comments that say, “I loved that part” or “Your story absolutely kills me in the best way”, letting me know that I don’t need to worry about that chapter I wrote in the middle of the night that I was uncertain about. I’m directing your attention to the feeling of short but intense work paying off because guess what? That A+ shows you did something right in that 2AM black coffee-fueled final paper-writing extravaganza (not the procrastination part, though--that part was utterly wrong). I’m reminding you about that time you spent with your little brother discussing his math homework instead of watching music videos.

All these little random choices and events are the ones that are bring an instant smile to your face, without being the results of long periods of work. The reason they count as you “being right” is this instant smile--the physical proof of making the right decision or just having done something right.

It’s a little frustrating trying to explain because there are so many instances. So I’ll leave you with a request: do something right today. Scream along time your favorite song and hit that high note. Watch that new movie in your favorite trilogy that just came out that you’ve postponed watching because you’re stressed from work. Call your mother and tell her you love her food, or at least that you miss it.

Make yourself smile--that’s the right thing to do.