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How to Live Unhappily Ever After

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Photo by Noah Silliman on Unsplash How to Live Unhappily Ever After By AUGUSTEN BURROUGHS "I just want to be happy." I can't think of another phrase capable of causing more misery and permanent unhappiness. With the possible exception of, "Honey, I'm in love with your youngest sister." In our super-positive society, we have a zero-tolerance policy for negativity. But who feels 'Great!' all the time? Yet at first glance, it seems so guileless. Children just want to be happy. So do puppies.  Happy  seems like a healthy, normal desire. Like wanting to breathe fresh air or shop only at Whole Foods. But "I just want to be happy" is a hole cut out of the floor and covered with a rug. Because once you say it, the implication is that you're not. The "I just want to be happy" bear trap is that until you define precisely, just exactly what "happy" is, you will never feel it. Whatever being happy means to you, it needs to be s