I have one friend in particular - I love her to pieces, but she drives me crazy - for whom the grass is *always* greener on the other side. She is never, ever satisfied. With anything.
Ah, yes, I am very familiar with this mind-set. I consider myself to be most fortunate in that I am self-resourceful and sublimely content with my lot in life. Some might respond that this is easy for me to say, because I don’t lack for much. And certainly, this is true. My life is not one of hardship and privation. Nor, however, is it a life of overt opulence. I own my apartment, have a car, a job, food in the refrigerator, books to read and canvases to paint, friends on the other end of the phone. What more could one want? (a boyfriend who lives closer than several hundred miles away would be nice, but that’s another story!)
The idea of spending a wet week at home, alone, with my head buried in a novel, is my definition of bliss! Even better if the phone doesn’t ring during that week. I have a very dear friend (of some 30+ years) who absolutely freaks out about my lifestyle. He is a rampaging extrovert who is absolutely compelled to “enjoy,” manically, every minute of every day. He tut-tuts at me often! Why is it that extroverts can never appreciate that introverts are happy being introverts; that trying to force them to be extroverts is what stresses them most? Alas, my extrovert friend is rarely a happy little camper! He thinks he is, but he’s not! This is because he is always searching for happiness, which is constantly just out of his reach. Like me, he has a comfortable lifestyle, with all the “necessities” and gadgets he could ever need. Yet, he is still forever manically searching for more, more, more. I tell him that true happiness comes from within. A concept he has trouble grasping.
Another dear friend of many years is one of those people who must always keep up with the Joneses. Whether it be a new house, expensive landscaping, water feature in the garden, automatic garage doors, restaurants, live shows, vacations, cars, the latest interior design for his home – he MUST have it. The main reason for this endless pursuit of “objects” is to one-up everyone else. It absolutely destroys him when someone else, particularly a friend, has something bigger or better or newer than him. In my personal opinion, that is a very sad state of affairs. As is he. He is basically a very sad, unfulfilled person. He has a partner, who is just as bad at eternally trying to keep up with the Joneses as he is!
Truth of the matter is, I’ve known both these guys for many, many years. Our friendship has stood the test of time. And I must say that I am sure they think I am just as weird as I think they are (maybe “weird” is too harsh a word; perhaps “challenged” would be better). The former person because I am content with my own company and the latter because I have no interest whatsoever in other people’s possessions.
My parents taught me that, “The best things in life are free.” Maybe I should have used this quote as my motto in the questionnaire.