Nothing should stop you from being happy. People say things like “I’d be happy if I won the lottery” or “man, I would kill myself if I couldn’t walk.” If I lost my sense of sight, I instinctively believe my life will be worse off and I will never be as happy as I can be right now. I’m sure everyone else has similar fears and thoughts.
An awesome piece of research by Brickman, Coates and Janoff-Bulman in the 70s demonstrated that this is nothing but an illusion you play on yourself. By comparing lottery winners and paralyzed accident victims, the researchers showed that happiness is, on the whole, largely relative. You make you happy, not your circumstances.
I was reminded of this super-positive research when I saw a kid with a name that would give MMA announcers a fit pranking strangers by dressing as a zombie and scaring them. The unique thing here is that Nick Santonastasso was born with only one complete limb, an arm. With a dark humor, Nick “attacked” terrified shoppers and posted the results on his Vine.
These pranks went viral and eventually, the guys on The Walking Dead saw it. They decided to fly Nick to Japan in order to prank Norman Reedus in the same way. I don’t doubt Nick has dark days but have a look at the video below and through his Vine account and you’ll see that it’s appropriate that it appears as if the only finger Nick has on his one limb is a middle finger, which is exactly what he gives his condition and the idea that it should define him.
