Chasing Joy, One Cookie at a Time

A simple pleasure? Well, I suppose the obvious answer is coffee, but that feels too broad. That’s like saying your favorite part of being alive is “oxygen.” No, the genuine pleasure is making a cup of coffee and then remembering, with the sort of quiet ecstasy usually reserved for religious visions, that you also have cookies. Not the fancy cookies. In fact, the more expensive the cookie, the less trustworthy it becomes. I don’t want a cookie infused with Himalayan salted caramel and the emotional backstory of a Peruvian cacao farmer. I want an Oreo. A Chips Ahoy. A Nilla Wafer. A cookie that understands its role in society. And there is a perfect moment, tragically brief, when the coffee is exactly the right temperature. Not lava. Not the disappointing lukewarm puddle it becomes because you got distracted reading an article about whether octopuses can recognize human faces. Just the perfect moment of ahhhh. That moment lasts roughly four seconds. Human happiness often does. Which is…