It’s Alright
I want to be honest with you. I got home from work, ate dinner, fed my cats, and then I finished the most recent episode of Ted Lasso. Then I watched the most recent episode of Slow Horses. Before those, I started and stopped watching both Furious and Youth. I just stopped watching Furious again. It’s not because I have ADHD. It’s because I do whatever I want to do.
I’m a single 55-year-old male who lives alone with four cats and a guinea pig. My son lives in an apartment over the garage at the back of my property, but he’s out of the country now, and I am on my own. My daughter is three hours away. I long for nothing other than more time with my kids. I bathe in the water of contentment.
It’s not perfect, but it’s what I choose. Some nights I work more, some nights I don’t. I will probably watch the first half of the Thursday night NFL game soon, although Steelers versus Browns might be like watching paint dry in Scottsdale in the summer. I will go to bed around 10 because I always do. I go to bed and wake up at the same time every day. It helps.
You don’t have to be happy to be content. I’m not happy, but I’m not not happy. When I see my kids, I am happy. My animals make me happy. Shocking singers on singing competition shows that you didn’t expect to crush make me happy. It’s not that complicated, at least not for me. It may be more complicated for you, and that’s okay. It’s not a competition between us.
I just want you to know that it’s alright. Not everything, because there is a lot of stuff going on that is complete shit. But the moments where you choose to give yourself a break are alright. Take a breath. There’s a place in the back of my closet that I know I would go in and hide if something bad happened. Sometimes you need to burrow.
Nothing that anyone else does around you matters unless they are intentionally doing something to or for you. Everyone has their own issues and demons. It doesn’t make what they do right. Sometimes, it doesn’t make what they say wrong. It just is. We are all individuals who would love to pull through the Taco Bell drive-thru and order a Gordita Crunch and a Seven-Layer Burrito, and eat them sitting in the parking lot with the car running and a random Spotify playlist on.
If you are unhappy, you can’t make yourself happy. Sometimes we are unhappy because of something, and sometimes we are just unhappy. Sadness is a bittersweet gift. Sometimes a long wallow feels better than sex. Allowing ourselves all our emotions is the unexpected present you got for the holidays one year that you thought no one knew you wanted. It wasn’t socks.
You are alright.
© Jonathan Greene, October 1, 2026
