A bad good day

What the heck is a bad good day, you ask? Look at it this way: your experience of a day depends on your expectations for that day. So your assessment of whether it was a good day or a bad day depends on how the events of the day meet your expectations. Two persons experiencing the same events on the same day will very likely have different reactions to those events, and hence judge the day as good or bad depending on their point of view.

That’s the first part. Then there’s also the fact that two persons could have wildly different experiences on the same day, so their memory of that day depends on their own personal experience. That’s all too common. Just because you had a good day, doesn’t mean someone else couldn’t have had a bad day. That only makes sense. But sometimes we forget that.

Sometimes, we’re thrilled about our day, and overlook that our friend may have just had a bad day. So maybe we become insensitive. And what if we were in their shoes? What if we had a bad day, and our friend had a great day, and they’re sharing their joy with us? Would we want them to stuff it? Would we resent them their good day? A good friend shouldn’t dampen their friend’s happiness, even if they can’t share in it.

So what if we’re sensitive to the other party’s feelings? What if we know that our friend had a bad day? Maybe we feel bad about having a good day. Maybe we feel a little guilt at being happy.

And maybe we can’t bring ourselves to being happy.

That is a bad good day.