Human nature is a funny thing. When you’re on the train, it’s easy to look out the window and wish you were in one of the cars whizzing by. “No schedules, no delays, no ‘interesting’ people accosting me on my commute. Must be nice…”

And when you’re in a car and you see a bus or a train go by, you have a similar reaction. “No gridlock. I could work or play games while someone else drives. It’s way less expensive. Must be nice.”

The grass is always greener, the road not taken beckons, and nobody is content with what they have. The thing you covet becomes just the boring old thing you have once you acquire it. “Comparison is the thief of joy” is widely attributed to a bunch of different people so I’ll just assume it was Abraham Lincoln (who also famously said “you can make up facts on the internet”), and it’s true. Not comparison between yourself and others, but between what you have versus what you want.

I wonder what contentment feels like.