So much of life is "what have you done for me lately?" The idea that the sweetness of victory should last forever deceives us every time. That's why competitors in sports are never satisfied with just one championship.
We can't prop up the rest of our life with an instance of good fortune. And it works the opposite way too, by the way. A painful circumstance or situation no more defines us than a happy one. We take losses just the same as wins. They're always temporary and the pendulum is sure to keep swinging back and forth. Like a tide of sorts.
Right now I'm reading Matthew McConaughey's book, Greenlights. It's all about taking life as it comes, rolling with the punches, and catching (and noticing) more greenlights amongst the red and yellow ones.
He sprinkles the pages with these “greenlights” while he rambles off life stories alongside them. He nicely sums up the finality of our view on the good and bad with a profound quote:
"Days of prosperity make us forget adversity. Good times seem out of reach during the bad ones. Both can seem like final destinations. The summation of our days. Then the cosmic joker plays with our ways. Yesterday's condition no longer remains. All commas, no periods, all stops, no stays. The pleasure is for rent, and so is the pain."
The question isn't whether or not we'll ever experience joy or sadness again, depending on our current condition. Those states are inevitable.
But are we able to level off? Are we able to understand that this moment—and this one—are not apart of some eternal standing that we either can't escape or can't afford to lose?
Life up to this point has been about wins and losses. Wherever you are. It doesn't matter if you're 73 or 16.
Wins. And losses.
What have you done with them? What building blocks did they create?
In the end we're all a product and none of us are finished.