Paradoxes of positivity

Generally speaking, if you try to stay positive, you'll be happier. Stands to reason. However, if you're positive about everything, continually look on the bright side, you really internalize this practice, and in time it gets harder to figure out what you don't like. When you don't know what the bright side is anymore, it's hard to know what you actually want.

I suspect that many mid-life crises grow out of this. In the absence of positive desires, you pick the inverse of what you've been doing. You can only take the long view for so long, then the subconscious snaps back and says: "Since a sports car etc. is the last thing you've been thinking about for god knows how long, it must be what you want."

Of course, this is only true of more abstract things. There's no confusing the relative charms of, say, overcooked broccoli and sausage pizza, even if, as I discussed somewhere below, adults are prone to fake enjoyment of less than tasty vegetables for the benefit of their children, in a rather perverse flipping of the old eros/thanatos thing.