Satisfaction is easy to get. Only you don’t get it, it gets you.
***
The world is in turmoil. Nobody is satisfied. Dissatisfaction everywhere you look. Protests, bank runs, people running pillar to post, anger in the headlines, fear in the streets. Is there a solution to the dilemma? Yes. Satisfaction. It’s not that hard to get. Consult an expert, a dog.
What’s ‘satisfaction?’ It’s an abstract noun, an intangible, open-ended feeling, easily applicable, effort not required. It can lie in the weeds of everyday life, the drudgery of chores or the joy of work well done.
It’s unable to grasp, has no physical presence but we know when we’ve received it. The Rolling Stones couldn’t get it but keep trying. You know the words by heart: “I can’t get no satisfaction, ‘cause I tried, and I tried…” They didn’t know that you don’t get satisfaction. It gets you.
Satisfaction is the child of Anticipation. Like our wild yellow flowering azalea, Anticipation is the pregnant bud; Satisfaction is the bursting blossom. There is an order to nature. But like the flower, Satisfaction is fleeting. Here now, then gone, just that quick, fickle as our feelings.
Today like every day Bogey our dog and I take a morning walk on the beach. His anticipation is impossible to ignore. He finds me, speaks with his eyes; I don’t have to ask, like Joe, “What’s the deal?”
To get there we walk through a short ligustrum arbor. It terminates at the top of a sand dune. He stands there, untethered, and looks to the left, then the right. I give him his head. He surveys the scene, his anticipation as heavy as his breathing.
Today the beach is empty. No people, no dogs. He looks at me, like “Now what?” How do you answer a dog’s inquisitive nature? He’s anticipating some action, but based on empirical observation, it appears an empty beach has none to offer.
But not so for dogs. Whether companions or merely the deer hooves in the sand or yesterday’s dog prints, anticipation grips him. He bolts to the sands below, confident in himself he’ll find joy and satisfaction somewhere.
Before long they come. Small boys, running like wild dogs, clutching plastic buckets and shovels and anticipating dream castles and shore treasures. Ah, yes, finally. Anticipation is conceiving everywhere. Dreams for parents, small boys and dogs are becoming a reality. Satisfaction is born. It takes little to satisfy small boys and dogs.
Hours can be spent looking for satisfaction without results. Why? Because satisfaction is a consequence of serendipitous moments. I personally like that word, serendipitous. It’s like finding a parking space next to the grocery store door, or one of the last remaining small grocery buggies. We call it Luck, and for a short time we find we’re satisfied.
It’d be nice if ‘satisfaction’ were permanent in our nature. But sadly, we’re not made that way. The root Latin word, ‘satis,’ means ‘enough.’ And enough is not how we’re constructed. It might be closer to the truth to say we are never satisfied, which makes the rare moments of satisfaction so special.
Bogey and I can only take so much beach anticipation and its consequent satisfaction, so we head home. He leaves the morning’s satisfying action where he finds it, on the beach, happy with the attitude of ’not too much, not too little, but just right.’ Which brings to mind a story a friend tells about an employee named William.
Seems William was prone to drink, especially bourbon. After a tough day, my friend rewarded him with a half-pint of some off-brand bourbon.
The next day he asked William how he liked the bourbon, to which he replied: “Well, Boss, if it was any worse, I wouldn’t have drank it, or if it was any better you wouldn’t have given it to me. So, I guess it was ‘just right.’”
I’m not sure if this story fits the theme of satisfaction or not, but for days to have ‘just-right’ moments of satisfaction comes close. Because after all, nothing’s perfect forever, but sometimes there’s perfection in the moment.
***
Satisfaction is not hard to get. Let it get you wherever it finds you, just like Bogey did at the end of our walk.
Give it a try.
Bud Hearn
March 20, 2023