Are you happy?

"What are you saying?"

"That I want to be a __________ (fill in the blank)"

"You're mad. You don't need to do that. You're already doing the work you want to do now. You earn the money - not that you need that money to live on. You have talent and you've earned your colleagues' respect."

"All right then, let's just say I need to be alone."

"Haven't you got everything you need?"

"I have everything a man/woman could want."

"What's wrong with your life then?"

"Precisely that. I have everything, but I'm not happy. And I'm not the only one either; over the years, I've met all kinds of people: the rich, the poor, the powerful, and those who just make do. I've seen the same infinite bitterness in everyone's eyes, a sadness which people aren't prepared to acknowledge, but which, regardless of what they were telling me, was nevertheless there."

"Some people appear to be happy, but they simply don't give the matter much thought. Other make plans: I'm going to have a husband/wife, two children, a flat. As long as they're busy doing all that, they're like bulls looking for the bullfighter: they react instinctively, they blunder on, with no idea where the target is. They get their car, sometimes they even get a Ferrari, and they think that's the meaning of life, and they never question it. Yet their eyes betray the sadness that even they don't know they carry in their souls. Are you happy?"

"I don't know."

"I don't know if everyone is unhappy. I know they all all busy. Very few people actually say to me: 'I'm unhappy.' Most say: 'I'm fine, I've got everything I ever wanted.' Then I ask: 'What makes you happy?' Answer: 'I've got everything a person could possibly want - a family, a home, work, good health.' I ask again: 'Have you ever stopped to wonder if that's all there is to life?' Answer: 'Yes, that's all that is.' I insist: 'So the meaning of life is work, family, children who will grow up and leave you, a wife or husband who will become like a friend than a real lover. And, of course, one day your work will end too. What will you do when that happens?' Answer: There is no answer. They change the subject."

"No, what they say is: 'When the children have grown up, when my husband-or my wife-has become more my friend than my passionate lover, when I retire, then I'll have more time to do what I always wanted to do: travel.' Question: 'But didn't you say you were happy now? Aren't you already doing what you always wanted to do?' Then they say they're very busy and change the subject."

"If I insist, they always do come up with something they're lacking: the dentist wanted to be a singer, the singer wanted to be a politician, the politician wanted to be a write, the writer wanted to be a farmer. And even when I did meet someone who was doing what he had chosen to do, that person's soul was still in torment. He hadn't found peace yet either. So I'll ask you again: 'Are you happy?' "

"People do their best not to remember and not to accept the immense magical potential they possess, because that would upset their neat little universes."

"But we all have the ability, don't we?"

"Absolutely, we just don't have all the courage to follow our dreams and to follow the signs. Prehaps that's where the sadness comes from."