1. From when I acknowledged the differences in the spectrum of happiness

I believe this is probably the most beautiful realisation I’ve had. It came right before I began to live the life I had dreamed of and I wasn’t conscious about. I was 18 and I had summarised al my belongings into two backpacks. I had short hair and I didn’t know who would I be in one year from this point. I was starting a transformation of my personality and viewpoints. The realisation came in New York and the story reads:

In the second week of my trip, when I was “living” in Brooklyn, I went for a run. It was cloudy and rain was more than a supposition. I had this structure: I would run twice around the park and stop afterwards in a free gym to work out. This gym was in a sketchy area, but I knew nothing would happen; everyone I had met there had been absolutely kind and welcoming.

When I was done working out I ran back home, rain had begun and dinner time was on the clock. On the way I passed by a metal structure that was meant to be an artistic bench. This bench had a tiny roof where you could hide from the rain. It was a red structure. When I passed by I saw two people playing the guitar and singing. They had beers with them and looked homeless. The guitar was out of tune. One man; one woman.

This man seemed to be in his 60’s. He had wrinkles all over his face. He had white hair and beard that generated a beautiful contrast with his dark skin. He was smiling, but you could see he had been through lot, we can’t even imagine half of the stories this man had been through.

The woman had blonde, messy hair. She was wrinkly too, but younger than the man. She had a tough face. She barely had cheeks and looked very skinny. I still can’t tell if either I felt it or saw it, but I somehow knew her life hadn’t been easy.

When I passed by them I stopped. An inner voice recommended me that I shouldn’t, but a louder one moved me to stop and see what they were doing. I approached them, recognised the song and I started following the rhythm until the song was over. We clapped and I asked them if I could join them.

This is probably the second thing you don’t do. We are told that we shouldn’t talk to homeless people and, if we do, never join them! I knew I had to prove this wrong to myself. I could feel that nothing was going to happen, we are all humans and this gets enhanced when there is music between us.

They kindly welcomed me and they squeezed together so we could all fit in the bench. I asked them if I could play the guitar and if they minded I tuned it. They nodded, offered me a beer and, before I answered, it was taken away because: “stop it! How can you offer him a beer? He is too young!  

When I had the guitar in my hands I realised I hadn’t played in a while and how much I missed it. I looked at them and I asked them if they knew Sublime while I started playing What I got. We sang, we rapped and we laughed while we were making the lyrics up.

After What I got they asked for a more relaxed song and I came up with Redemption Song and the reactions were very powerful. We improvised the lyrics. We saw people looking at us while we were singing as if there was nobody else there and we didn’t care. We had built this bubble out of music where we could do anything we wanted, we were too happy to be disturbed by social pressure.

When we finished Redemption Song I was about to start something else when they stopped me to say something I can, more and less, quote. I will never forget this: “Thanks, Simón. Thanks for joining us here tonight. I am surprised you stopped to play with us. We are old people in the side of a park who could be dangerous and you ignored that”. I answered that it was my pleasure to meet them and I tried to start playing again, but he continued: “You know why are we here tonight? We have been coming to this point for the last 15 years, every Thursday we would come here with my brother to play and sing. Last week my brother passed away and we have been devastated. We had a band and now we can’t play anymore. We didn’t know what to do and we decided to come here today, on the same day that we would always come to do what he liked. And today, when we didn’t have him, you appeared. Thanks, Simón. You made us happy. Thank you very much.

I had no words to express what I felt in that moment. I just separated my head from my fingers and I let them play Tears in Heaven. That was the best I could think of; I believe it was the right decision. They listened and enjoyed. I was nervous, but I knew that I would not commit a mistake.

When I finished I hugged both of them and told them I had to go. I told them I would never forget what happened and what they had taught me. I say goodbye once again and I left.

On my way home I couldn’t hold my tears. I wondered why was I crying if I had experienced something that deep and, feelings-wise, intense.  I realised I was crying because I was happy. Truly happy. I felt joyful, excited and complete (in a way). I wondered why, if I had been happy through all my life, hadn’t I cried of it before. I came up with a very graphic description to what was happening to me:

If we represent happiness with a bar, whenever we receive a material gift that we really want we reach a certain point on this bar. 30/40% maybe. When we see that our parents are doing great and they are doing perfectly good with themselves, maybe reaches a 50/60%. What happens with this is that we only know how big this bar is according to what we have experienced. When we reach that 60% we believe that is the end of the happiness bar, that we can’t be happier. Nevertheless, what I discovered is that whenever we help someone to achieve his own happiness, we experience a level of happiness that goes beyond this bar.

We go over the 100% to a level we can’t control. We cry, we scream, we do stuff we never do. Bliss.

This is what I discovered. I discovered a sensation that was fulfilling as nothing had ever been. I learnt I need to help someone to achieve it again and I wished that moment came as soon as possible.

I loved this sensation. I did love it and I hope everybody can experience it one day. I encountered a game changer.