Provided by Marushka from Skeleton At The Feast
There are many good arguments on behalf of contentment. I am in fact completely in favor of contentment, so if you find yourself at peace with your life please don’t read any further – because today I make the case for a creature called Dissatisfaction.
What is this beast? I often catch it prowling around my thoughts. It haunts late afternoons, slow days, sleepless nights and glimpses of other people’s lives. Sometimes it’s large and sometimes, small. It’s always impossible to ignore. I used to think it was a bad luck charm: somewhere I must have gone wrong, to bring Dissatisfaction on myself. But lately, it looks a bit different. Its tracks have led me to a lot of places marked “Change.”
You see, I’ll tell you the moral of this story right now: Dissatisfaction doesn’t mean bad luck or bad morals. It simply means an awareness that the “real” world doesn’t match up to the world in your head. And once you’ve accepted that, the next logical question becomes: what are you going to do about it?
Dissatisfaction is not something to waste. Unlike Contentment, who sits alone in its garden and smiles through sun and rain, Dissatisfaction is almost never still. It has the energy of an insomniac pacing at midnight: constant, restless, untamable. That’s powerful stuff.
It’s a force strong enough to drive change. It’s a force just contrary enough to see where the world can be repaired – and refuse to rest until it’s found the duct tape.
Here is a truth: today I lost a battle. It’s one I’ve been fighting for about five years, alongside many other humans. As you may suspect, Dissatisfaction is howling outside my door right about now. And it’s the best sound I’ve heard this morning. My nature’s better angels are busy nursing their wounds, so there’s not much help from Faith, Hope, and Charity. But Dissatisfaction has just enough wit to know what not to accept.
You, too, may have lost a battle. If it hasn’t happened today, or yesterday, it may happen tomorrow. But you have strength enough for two: you and Dissatisfaction. And Dissatisfaction will keep you going when Contentment has fled. Dissatisfaction remembers what the world inside your head looks like, and it isn’t going to let you forget until you’ve done everything you can to bring it to fruition.
Now, most stories have only one moral – but this one has two. So here’s the second one: understand you may never be content. But let it be because of the strength of your vision of the world. Once you understand what that vision requires, “dissatisfied” can become another way of saying “visionary.”
If you’re content, long may you live. If you’re apathetic, good luck. If you’re dissatisfied, well, there’s work to be done on this planet – and I have the feeling you just may have what it takes to do it.
—
And whether you are content or dissatisfied with this post, I’m eager for your thoughts in the comments!
Best,
Marushka