Three Days of Happiness

222
Afterword
They say that a fool can never be cured to his death.
But I like to take a slightly more optimistic view of this. Something
more like “A fool will be cured by the time he’s dead.”
While we call them all fools (or its synonyms), there actually exist
many different kinds of fool. The fool I speak of here is the fool who
creates his own hell.
What is characteristic of this fool, first of all, is that he is strongly
convinced he can never be happy. Made more severe, this
conviction can be expanded to become “I shouldn’t be happy,” and
ultimately arrive at “I don’t want to be happy,” a most destructive
misunderstanding.
Once that point is reached, there’s nothing left to fear. These fools
become intensely familiar with dissatisfaction, and no matter how
blessed their environment, they find some loophole to avoid
happiness.
As this is all done subconsciously, they believe this world to be hell -
when in actuality, they are just making it hell themselves with every
step they take.
I myself am one of those hell-creators, which is why I believe so, but
such fools cannot be cured quickly. To someone who has made
being unhappy part of their identity, not being unhappy is losing
oneself. The self-pity they used to endure unhappiness eventually
becomes their only enjoyment, and they actively seek out
displeasure for that purpose.