There have been times in my life where I was happy but didn’t realize it until it was too late, so this checks out.
“I wish there was a way to know you’re in the good old days before you’ve actually left them.” Andy Bernard
This totally happens to me too. I even tried clapping my hands one time as the realization washed over me like a rogue wave catching a kayaker off guard, tossing them into the cold gray-green water, the sounds of gurgling bubbles robbing them of their last hope for deliverance.
Alas.
“Don’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone”
Yeah often happiness is just contentment. It’s easy to get bored with that and “want more” from life. Bad choices can often follow these instincts!
Life is making mistakes and deciding how to live with them. :)
Dave Gorman did a stand-up bit about this. His version goes something like
If you’re happy and you know it and you really want to show it clap your hands
If you’re happy and you know it and you really want to show it clap your hands
But if you’re happy and don’t know it, or unhappy and you do
Then the clauses in this song do not apply to you
But if you’re happy and you know it and you really want to show it
Then, and only then, please clap your hands
One time I was both fine and dandy for about an hour, but nobody asked how I was!
Sometimes you don’t know how good you have it until your “rock bottom” turns out to be an elevator which is now headed down a mineshaft 😭
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Edit: Yes, I low that is a helix.
And ignorance is bliss
Most of the time, yeah
She took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they had been happy; and they clapped their hands.
Subconscious desires being met while conscience ones aren’t.
If your mood is ambiguous, make a sound!
Gneurshk
And it implies that if you were happy and didn’t know it, you’d clap anyway if the song didn’t clarify.
Does it? It sounds to me like it implies that you wouldn’t clap your hands unless you are happy, you know it, and you also want to show it. All three must be true for it to be hand-clapping time.
What difference would you expect if the “and you know it” clause were omitted?
Suppose there are indeed some people who would clap ”if they’re happy”, but refrain “if they’re happy and they know it”. The implication would be that these people are happy and don’t know it—and yet we’re supposing that they would have clapped at “if they’re happy” anyway.
If they didn’t clap, adding the clause would have no effect and its inclusion would have no motivation.
