Happy & Calm

Posted on April 28th, 2015

Warning you about Grey’s Anatomy spoilers!  If you managed to avoid Grey’s Anatomy spoilers from last week’s episode a) how did you do it?? and b) don’t read this post!  To thank you for stopping by anyway, here’s a spoiler-free image of a puppy for your entertainment:

We watch TV shows for entertainment.  But why must entertainment be equated with earth shattering, one in a billion drama?  Entertainment just refers to anything you find amusing, or brings you enjoyment.  So you know what I think is entertaining?  Watching people be happy together.  Watching people recognize that the silly minutiae of life is really made special by the people you spend it with.  It does not bring me enjoyment to watch people’s lives be ripped to shreds, fictional though they may be.

I read something once: “It’s okay to be happy with a calm life.”  It really stuck with me, in large part because I don’t always feel that way.  For us Type A people of the world, we are tempted to equate happiness with contentment, and contentment with settling or stagnation.  This is such faulty logic!  Many of us would be more balanced if we took time to recognize the beauty in what we had, rather than feeling panicked about so-called excitement that we may be missing.

It does not seem that television writers got the whole “happy & calm” memo.  Life doesn’t have season finales.  TV has mass shootings and car accidents; life has grocery shopping and long dinners with friends.  Guess which one I want?

Let’s examine Grey’s Anatomy, for instance.  Last summer, Bustle put this list together to support the argument that Meredith Grey is the unluckiest person in the history of the world– and this is before her handsome, noble husband (with incredible hair) died.   Which, quite frankly, I think has finally given me the courage I need to quit Grey’s.  I don’t need that misery in my life!  I’m looking for happy & calm, not insanely twisted and unrealistically depressing.

I’m going to choose to remember Grey’s like this.  With love and smiles.  If you can’t run from your TV problems, where else can you?

Also, while we’re on the topic.

This was equally unnecessary.

So forget schadenfreude and “the episode you’ll never forget.”  Let’s all remember that life isn’t like this– and thank goodness, too!