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I think we can all agree that the world is pretty shit right now and that it’s only right we all find something to make us happy in these uncertain times. Using foul language isn’t intelligent, I’m well aware of this fact however, it does not detract from all the things wrong in the year 2026; Donald Trump ruling the US and causing extensive damage to the countries they call ‘friends’, Vladimir Putin attempting to strong arm countries in to releasing their territory to him and this doesn’t even touch on the Middle East, famine, disease and anything else you care to throw in to the mix. I maintain my opening statement, the world is pretty shit.
There is a chase for that one hit of dopamine, the one that gives us a warming hug from the inside out. Most importantly we tend to choose the things that makes our heart swell, to feel things from a past that we choose not to forget or from the present love that surrounds us. That Dopamine does so much for our body and mind but we, as a people, have a serious issue.
We insult, belittle or outright treat people with contempt when they tell us that their ‘little piece of happiness’ doesn’t align with what we think is ‘normal’ or ‘common’. Everyone is guilty of this and I’ll be the first to admit that two hours prior to writing this post, I gawped at a man who took love in caring for his dolls. It’s purely my own morbid thoughts that prevented me from considering this could be purely innocent and his route to getting that dopamine hit.
I should have known and more importantly, acted better rather than forward it to my wife with the text ‘WTF’.
I love the 90s and I’m not ashamed of that
The 90s have never left or, I should say, I never left the 90s. Walk in to my office and you’ll find a poster of Dookie by Green Day on the wall, shelves holding knick-knacks ranging from Boglins to Playmobil and the music of the era playing; my love of the nineties has pulled me through episodes of depression and times of sadness. For me, this era acts a giant blanket that cocoons me in the deepest colds of the winter. It secures me, holds me tight and stops me from feeling the bleakness of the biting winter outside. Yes, the era I hold dear had its own trials and tribulations but I was a child and the memories I hold dear don’t feature those grey clouds or storms.
Have I been mocked? Behind my back most likely. Indirectly? Yes. Regularly. People are so fast to judge and comment on people who enjoy using nostalgia as a subject. Want proof? If you have a moderate social media following, make a post with an image of something you loved as a kid that wasn’t ‘successful’. I can almost guarantee that at least one comment will be ‘it was shit’ or something very similar; there is not one thought in the slightest about the person posting or the memories they attach to that item.
Ok, here is another example: Someone who I haven’t spoken to in a long while sent me a game called ‘Bad Cat’ on 5 and a quarter inch floppy. Go and research the game and you’ll see that the general consensus is that it’s a bad game. Why then, did my German friend have so much love for it? it wasn’t for the quality of the game but instead the love he shared with his now deceased brother, the time they spent loading the game and playing it, the struggles to complete it and intense feelings of satisfaction when succeeding where previously they had failed. I’m not quite sure I could ever call this game terrible in the same way again.
So going back to that first paragraph and my statement with the current climate. Do whatever (legally) you can to get that dopamine hit and ignore the voices in the crowd, we live life in our own way and no one has the right to take any small semblance of joy from you.
