Snowglobe

by Soyoung Park

Because if I stop believing in my future, I’m afraid I won’t be able to endure the punishing monotony and hopelessness of my so-called life. Not for another minute.

Those of us toiling away in the open world live through our favorite TV shows, riding the rise and fall of the characters’ fortunes as if they were our own. That’s how we escape the burden of our own bleak existence, if only for a while: by immersing ourselves in the lives of those who get to live where the sun shines. And their failures, in particular, be they financial troubles, ugly divorces, or the most wrenching heartbreak, can inspire in us an odd kind of peace, a sense that the world may be an equitable place after all.

“Do you know why Cooper’s show was such a hit?” I shake my head, not because I don’t have a theory, but because I’d hate for it to be the wrong one. “It’s because people recognized their own weaknesses in him. Cooper was an indomitable biathlete with five consecutive world championships, but he couldn’t stop crying over the blood on his hands. Humans are very good at that—finding something to be miserable about, even in absolute happiness.”