Monday's Song

JIMMY DURANTE - MAKE SOMEONE HAPPY

We're great at making things complicated. We get into endless conversations and disagreements about our over-caffeinated modern lives.

But at the end of the day, it still comes down to this: find that one person and make them happy.

We've lost sight of that. My generation, we don't know what we're doing. We hide behind computer screens, send cryptic text messages, and get endlessly mixed up in casual dating.

But of course, no-one really wants casual dating, or being non-exclusive or any of the crazy things we've come up with to protect ourselves. We're the most privileged generation in human history, and we handle it with narcissism, we fall in love with our possessions. There's an episode of 'Boston Legal' where a character falls in love with an iPhone. Six years ago, it seemed funny, now it just seems realistic.

Make someone happy. Such an alien concept to us. How often do we do it?

Sure, we do a good deed and then say, "Didn't you notice? Didn't you see the effort I put in?" I told you, we're narcissists. We do things for the validation.

But maybe it can be a lot more simple than that.

"It's so important to make someone happy. Make just one someone happy."

The song resonates because it cuts through the bullshit. Makes you realise you've gone five years without tending to the relationships in your life.

Is there someone you could make happy? Would you want to? Maybe the risks seem too high, but what is the alternative? What do you want your life to be about?