"Is that all there is ?" , by Erik Pevernagie, oil on canvas ,(100 x100 cm). Thomas Mann, the German Nobel Prize, has inspired this painting with his story "Disillusionment" ( "Enttäuschung" ) and Peggy Lee gave voice to the contents with her vocal adaptation. Thomas Mann gives us a meditation on human life, which he describes as nothing but a series of disappointments. Our dissatisfied personage starts from the perspective that everything is either good or bad, beautiful or ugly, and comes to the conclusion that our life's experiences never live up to our expectations. But through Hamlet, William Shakespeare tells us: " "There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so" It is the Perception that makes things what they are. Good and evil are terms individuals apply daily. Good and bad is in our mind. It is our mind-set, our mental attitude that determines how we will interpret and respond to situations. In the painter's opinion, false hopes and unreachable expectations lead inevitably to disillusionment. Carpe diem: Enjoying the "instants" as they emerge. When living is too comfy or glitzy, it may not be easy to appreciate the humblest things in life. Being happy with the small gifts we receive can be a bliss, but we can, even more, expand it through voluntary action and exalting Voltaire's words, "today, I have decided to be happy." Indeed, if we don't want to be only "expecting" things to become real and if we don't want to be just waiting for the beautiful and the good to come, we can decide to be inventive and take things in our own hands by voluntary action. If the dust of volcanic love has settled and the harshness of a new reality has become too oppressive, disillusionment may have to be mended, wounds to be healed, and emotional fallouts to be taken care of, mindfully. When attention turns into indifference or love fades away into a grey zone of discomfort, only imagination can bring us back to the limelight of life.