I think the word "appreciate" is a short way of saying, "didn't expect or demand for this thing to happen but it did and it made me happy."
And the "didn't expect or demand" part is important. That's why it's so much harder to appreciate something you've made yourself. You were there when you had the idea to make it, and you were there when you made it. What part wasn't expected or demanded?
But I think appreciation is the best kind of happiness because, inherently, you are happy over something happening that you didn't want (not to say that you wanted it to NOT happen, just that you never actively wanted it). If you wanted it, and you got it, that's not appreciation, that's just...boring/ wish fulfillment(?)/ satisfaction. Appreciation isn't so much about what happened as it is you conforming yourself to being happy. You make a choice to appreciate.
So, another way of defining appreciation could be, "I didn't want this to happen and then it did and then I willed myself to be happy about it because...magic?"
Whatever that thing is that enables you to 'appreciate' is what makes someone a good person, to me.
Maybe appreciation is caused by something that shows you a part of yourself that you didn't know was there. It teaches you about yourself and appreciating is accepting that experience.
So then, I think it's possible to say that being a good person is all about doing or experiencing unwanted but necessary things--from your own point-of-view, at least.
Wait a second, Andy! That doesn't make any sense. I thought being a good person was all about doing what you want, finding your calling. Unwanted but necessary sounds an awful lot like toiling, eating vegetables, and being nice to strangers. I don't like it.
Right! Let's take Team Blitz, for example. I was talking to someone earlier this week about how the people who stay with Team Blitz, the tiny tiny running club that could, don't want to be on Team Blitz, they need to be on Team Blitz. You won't appreciate Team Blitz if you want to be on it. It's useless. We just run impractically hard for an impractically long time to achieve discomfort. But if you can somehow trick yourself (by magic again) into needing to be on Team Blitz, you will be able to appreciate it.
Then "appreciation" becomes, "I didn't want this to happen and then it did and I willed myself to be happy about it because some part of me needed it."
Ugh...so...want vs need.
Wanted Needs- The basic urges. Sleep, Eat, Shelter, Companionship, Self-Esteem, etc...
Wanted Not-Needed- Anything in the classic definition of "fun"-- illegal, immoral, or fattening.
Unwanted Unneeded- diarrhea.
Unwanted Needs?--Running...art?
This is getting messy. Let's just go back to poetry and call it a day. Or art in general.
You shouldn't want art. Art is useless. It has to be useless. If Art was useful it would just be a tool or a drug. But something, again--magic, in what makes us human needs art. And appreciating art is fulfilling that need. I think that's why people describe the sublime as painful and violent. Because at its core it is unwanted but entirely necessary. And that tension hurts.
Oh! I get it! What we need but don't want is humility. That's the thing! That's what makes you appreciate. Accepting your humility. And you can't appreciate what you make because how could you humble yourself?
Appreciation: "I didn't want this to happen and then it did and I chose to be happy about it because it humbled me and taught me how to be a better person."
...I guess diarrhea could fit that description...
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