Alias: beard face
I don't know if this question warrants any context, but what is it to be content?
Hi beard face,
This one might be above our pay grade! Sorry, but the Buddha has written about contentment and we simply cannot compete with that guy.
We wish you had in fact given us some context because we would have loved to tailor our answer to helping you figure out what it could mean for you, beard face, to be content.
Perhaps it is the historic moment we are living through, but the only two things we can concretely tie back to contentment are meeting basic human needs (shelter, food, security) and the need for community. Community in this context, could include friends, relatives, mentors or anyone in your life that you could rely on in your life to help you out in a moment of crisis.
The first is self explanatory but when, in our experience, those needs are not fully met, the community steps in to provide what is missing. For the LGBT community, it was our community that housed us when our parents kicked us out. For sex workers, who are often harassed by police and therefore cannot rely on the state for security, it is their community that steps up to put together lists of abusive clients to avoid and blacklist. For people struggling with mental health issues, it is their community of friends who often see the first signs and intervene.
You may say in response that community is tied to survival, more than contentment, but we would argue that if you are dead, happiness is not your first concern. In an inherently unjust world, for many people, surviving till tomorrow in itself is a triumph worth celebrating.
We hope you have moved beyond survival, as many of us have the privilege of doing/ being born into, and that you have found a community that is caring and reliable. If so, can you actually figure out what it means to be content and get back to us when you do?
Stay questioning,
The Second Puberty