"You're doing it wrong," he says.

I slowly look over my shoulder at him. His face is impassive. I can't tell if he's joking... but... surely he wasn't wandering around the internet, looking at lolcats. Right?

"The translation," Shame prompts. "No Ai-Naidari would ever complain of not being happy."

"What?" I ask, shaking my head. He points. " 'Are you happy'. That's not a question anyone would ask, not like that."

"What do you say then?"

"The word you want is vesh," he says. " 'Are you contented.' "

Before I can speak, he says, "No, aunerai, it's not the same. Contentment is a state... you see, here is the noun form, veshem. But happiness is a moment. It can never be a state. One can be anil, "happy," but not exist there. It passes... that's normal."

"Oh," I say. "That seems..."

"Sustainable?" he offers, cocking a brow at me.

"Well..." I begin... and trail off. How many problems would it solve if contentment was considered the normal "good" state and happiness was just a grace note, one you didn't try to cling to? I try to imagine a society where everyone is aiming for contentment and grateful for happiness. Half of me recoils; the other half thinks it's far more reasonable than expecting to be wildly happy all the time.

"Sometimes I think you people are smarter than me," I mutter.


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Tags: ai-naidar, language, meta-conversations
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...and I had my own considerations, and between the two there was really only one choice. It was a lot of money--more than I wanted to spend--but if it lasts me as long as the last printer did, it should be okay.



My new printer arrives on Tuesday. After that? Archival giclée prints... from postcard-sized to posters.That round dot in the lower left there? Is a quarter!


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