Mark Manson - The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F__k (2016, HarperOne) - libgen.li

CHAPTER 6
You’re Wrong About Everything (But So Am I)
Five hundred years ago cartographers believed that California was an
island. Doctors believed that slicing a person’s arm open (or causing
bleeding anywhere) could cure disease. Scientists believed that fire was
made out of something called phlogiston. Women believed that rubbing dog
urine on their face had anti-aging benefits. Astronomers believed that the sun
revolved around the earth.
When I was a little boy, I used to think “mediocre” was a kind of
vegetable that I didn’t want to eat. I thought my brother had found a secret
passageway in my grandmother’s house because he could get outside without
having to leave the bathroom (spoiler alert: there was a window). I also
thought that when my friend and his family visited “Washington, B.C.,” they
had somehow traveled back in time to when the dinosaurs lived, because
after all, “B.C.” was a long time ago.
As a teenager, I told everybody that I didn’t care about anything, when the
truth was I cared about way too much. Other people ruled my world without
my even knowing. I thought happiness was a destiny and not a choice. I
thought love was something that just happened, not something that you
worked for. I thought being “cool” had to be practiced and learned from
others, rather than invented for oneself.
When I was with my first girlfriend, I thought we would be together
forever. And then, when that relationship ended, I thought I’d never feel the
same way about a woman again. And then when I felt the same way about a
woman again, I thought that love sometimes just wasn’t enough. And then I
realized that each individual gets to decide what is “enough,” and that love
can be whatever we let it be.