the wends– n. the frustration that you’re not enjoying an experience as much as you should, which prompts you to try plugging in various through combinations to trigger anything more intense than roaring static, as if your heart had been inadvertently demagnetized by a surge of expectations.

That is quite a definition. I don’t know if I experience the wends often, or not to that extent, but I do sometimes look at an experience that everyone around me seems to be enjoying. Or many people I know are enjoying.

And I’m not. Or not much.

Sometimes this is music, where lots of people like something I don’t. Maybe it’s a place or experience.

Maybe it’s me.

I try to step back and think about what other people see, or why they like it. Maybe that is the wends.

From the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows