Satisfaction

Satisfaction comes in many forms, from satisfying your parents after receiving a perfect score on a test to satisfying your hunger when you bite into a delicious Chipotle burrito.  However, from a very young age we are taught that we should not be satisfied unless something is perfect.  Did the cook accidentally put cheese on your burger when you asked for no cheese?  Go back up to the counter and demand a new one.  Did your new shoes have a scuff on them when you bought them?  Go back to the store and ask to exchange them.  No matter what, we always find "imperfections" in things.

Scott Russell Sanders examines this quality that many have in a passage from "Staying Put: Making a Home in Restless World."  The example he uses is that "If we fish out a stream or wear out a field, or if the smoke from a neighbor's chimney begins to crowd the sky, why off we go to a new stream, a fresh field, a clean sky" (Sanders).  It is humorous that people would uproot their entire life in order to avoid something that they don't deem perfect.

Rather than spending our lives picking out the problems that people and goods have, we would live happier lives if we just focused on good qualities. Is it really going to kill you if you were given a cheeseburger instead of a hamburger?  Unless you are lactose intolerant and do not carry Lactaid pills with you, the answer is no.