"Share your happiness with the world." Duh, right? That's some basic b***h stuff. But recently a Buddhist nun said this to me in this sort of knowing way and it's been changing my life I realized that I am often not only hiding my happiness but actively turning it down. I'm doing this to fit in, to connect with the zeitgeist. And today's zeitgeist has made it borderline offensive to be happy "You're happy? What about the war? And misaligned AI? And Tr*mp???" Being happy is uncool right now in academia, amongst liberals, amongst humanitarians, and in art circles. It's cringe in many locales of NYC and twitter. So I noticed that when I walk smiling through the streets, I start to feel like I'm Out Of Touch This nun, however, was pointing out that if you don't share your happiness, if you don't let thy cup runneth over, you're depriving other people of something that can light them up No one wants to be seen as naive, spiritually bypassing, or brushing aside the horrors of the world. But a mature form of happiness, one that acknowledges these horrors, and which shines despite them...? that strikes me as exactly the sort of thing we need right now