For my right to complain

Like I said some postings ago, I would like to write in defense of my right to complain.

Objectively, I am actually not the happiest person these days (or these months). But whenever someone asks how I am, I will say "I'm fine", "Not bad", "I can't complain".

I can't complain because I have a nice job, a nice family, good health, some very good friends and a comfortable life. I can waste a bit of money from time to time and still have enough to pay the rent, go out for dinner, go to the theater, travel, get some chocolate... I have literally no responsibilities other than myself, and even if I couldn't take care of myself, I would have good social support. I am relatively well educated, enjoy reading and even studying, which is great because both are things that don't require much physical effort or other people's intervention. I speak english, so I could potentially get along with many people from all over the world, and also travel to most destinations fairly safely. Comparatively, my life has always been easy. I have never known war or hunger. Even when my parents didn't have enough money to buy us new clothes when we were kids, they managed so that I never had a perception of scarcity. And economy is pretty good right now. Again, comparatively.
I can't complain because, if we draw a horizontal line that divided the world's population into the fortunate and the unfortunate, I would be, comparatively, scraping the top.

So, if I complain, it doesn't mean that I'm not grateful for the life I have. But it means that I know things could be even better. It means that I am aware of the aspects in my life that are not, comparatively, as good. And I am just pointing them out so I can make them better. Because, like I said, life is a succession of goals and achievements.

A few days ago someone thought I might use a self-help book. It's called "The glasses of happiness". I have only a few pages left.
In this book, the author tries to give me (because I'm the one reading it) a few tips on how to be happy. One of his main points is, "In order to be fine, all you need is food and drink. Everything else is bonus."
Well, I see how this maxim can work, but I don't exactly agree with it. Rather, I do, only I don't think that is the key for a happy life, but for a comfortable one. Which is quite a different thing. A comfortable life is the kind of life that passes by unnoticed while you content yourself with what it puts before you. And I'm reading the book, supposedly, because I want to be happy, and not just fine. Otherwise I would go for "The glasses of fineness".
Each person could probably give us a different definition of "happiness", while such thing most certainly does not exist as a permanent condition or state of mind. I wouldn't know how to define it, but if I had to, I would say it probably involves some effort from my side. Because, in order to be happy, I need to believe that I can, in some way, be better. And make it a goal. Otherwise, if I'm just fine with what I already got, what's the point of going on? I could just die right now, and I would die happy.

So, after all, maybe it's a good thing that happiness is not achievable.
Because unhappiness is precisely what allows us to hope and makes us keep moving towards something better.
Therefore I will keep complaining, from time to time.

* NOTE: "Happiness" is just a fake concept created by a society that had already achieved the goal of "surviving". So it all depends on your glasses.
Like Machado said, "The sea and the mountain change, as does the eye that beholds them."