Leo: How did you celebrate New Year’s Eve?
Wise man: Many people have asked me this same question. But here’s a subtle yet more interesting question: Is it really important? Is it really important how you celebrated it? Or whether you celebrated it at all?
Leo: So, there is something more important?
Wise man: Definitely. It doesn’t really matter whether you celebrated New Year’s Eve well or not. What does matter is if you managed to celebrate life during this year. See, you can celebrate the whole year meaning you can spend it in the most meaningful way and screw up New Year’s Eve. But it’s just one day. One day out of the other 364 ones. And conversely, you can celebrate New Year’s Eve well but screw up the whole year. And the latter would be much sadder.
It’s like on a battlefield. You can lose a battle but win the war. Or you can win the battle, but lose the war. What do you think a bad general does?
Leo: I guess he might be too focused on winning this one battle that he loses the sight of the whole war which might lead to losing the latter eventually.
Wise man: Exactly. Whereas a good general is focused on winning the whole war, not just on some battle.
Leo: I wonder why society is too focused on ensuring that certain days pass well, like Birthday, New Year’s Eve and other ‘important days’?
Wise man: They are simply deluded. They are too busy rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Or in this case, I would say ‘too busy preparing for a holiday on the Titanic’
Leo: It seems like they fail to think in terms of the whole year, or the whole life.
Wise man: Because it’s much easier to think in terms of just one day. It takes practice to shift your thinking and start thinking in terms of long periods of time – in terms of months and years and also, in terms of decades and the whole life. And not just once. You have to constantly remind yourself to think long-term.
Leo: Yeah, it all sound wise, but wouldn’t it be the other extreme if we didn’t celebrate holidays at all?
Wise man: Surely. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t celebrate them at all. Planning, strategising, working and accomplishing too much lead to disbalance. So breaks and holidays are healthy.
What I’m saying is don’t care too much about how one single day will pass. Care about how the year will pass, how life will pass. And break this habit of feeling happy only on certain days, on certain occasions. And the rest of the year feeling grumpy because your life is not only some special days. Your life is all days without exception: good days, bad days, happy days, sad days, inspiring days, boring days.
If there weren’t unhappy days, you wouldn’t know which days are the happy ones. What creates this understanding is contrast. More so, happy or unhappy days are only in your head. there are neither happy nor unhappy days in the universe. Your life is all days. If you have happy days enjoy them. If you have unhappy days, draw lessons from them to create more happy days. Unhappy days help you create more happy days.
Again, your life is all days. Celebrate life, not holidays.