I have been an ardent fan of Netflix’s Marco Polo since my introduction to it almost a year ago. I read Marco Polo stories as a kid and my movie diet when growing up consisted of two things: Chinese kung fu movies and Chinese kung fu movies. Netflix’s series is somewhat a blend of the two.
If you follow the series, you will know that Hundred Eyes is a blind monk in service to (Emperor) Kublai Khan. He is set with the task of training Marco Polo at the beginning of the series.
In the second season, the enigmatic Hundred Eyes shares some wisdom with a young man, looking for guidance, who was entering a new phase in life. What he said at that moment stood out for me. It made me think of a few friends who are “obsessed with being unhappy”. That sounds unkind, I know, but let me explain.
I have one friend, who had an awesome and beautiful girlfriend. He was constantly obsessing over her leaving him for other guys. She ended up leaving, but only because she couldn’t handle his prophecies about her leaving. The negative energy sucked the life out of an otherwise great relationship.
Then there is another friend who is super talented. She reacts with incredulity whenever something good happens, as if she doesn’t deserve it. Not necessarily bad, but then she doesn’t fully embrace and enjoy these good moments because she is worried about having them snatched away. It seems to me that life for her is a constant and draining search for the things that could go wrong.
And that is why the words of Hundred Eyes arrested my attention.
“A man wishing to be unhappy finds many ways to prove his path,” he said.
Don’t search for, and agonize over, what could wrong. Enjoy what’s going right!