There was a discussion about Happiness. Quickly the sensitive assembly realised that happiness is neither nice nor desirable. Stagnating, backward, inward. If it even exists. No, he or she who aims at happiness has really bought the pig in the bag and a few tales with it. The most passionate said they were not sure they followed. HAPPINESS? Never heard of. And surely nobody makes art to obtain happiness? No, not in this company (sporadic laughter) – definitely not. A couple admitted they had experienced something reminiscent of happiness when they had fulfilled something that they had dreamed of. But only fleetingly. Moment flashes, a few nanoseconds perhaps, no more. Mm. Yes. There were some that might have felt something similar. But the notion of something uplifting had appeared rather unreliably, when least expected. On the pavement in a rain, when taking out the bins or, why not, in a fit of crying. Seemingly by chance. Almost as in a...dream. From one corner a resigned protest against the cliché of the unhappy artist could be heard. A happy artist being a bad artist and all that. She apparently didn’t get it. IT’S NOT ABOUT HAPPINESS OR UNHAPPINESS! someone almost shouted. Every day is a battle! It’s the road, it’s the struggle! The road! The struggle! The road! The struggle! When things had calmed down one guy happened to say that he was happy every day that he woke without being unhappy. WHAT! Implied: most of the time he felt like shit! Phew. That’s lucky. LUCKY? “Only for the lucky ones”. “Born under a lucky star”. Do you really believe in that? Believe? BELIEF? What’s that got to do with anything? I hope no one here is just going around believing? No, for God’s sake! Don’t believe that. I guess you hope but that’s about all you can hope for. HOPE?

That’s the way it went on until someone said something about that in the end everybody just wants to be happy. And it started all over again.

Yet it’s a fairly common dream. Happiness. I had a dream...and it came true. It can’t get better than that, can it? It proved not to be quite that simple. Because on the one hand...