Occasionally, throughout my life, I’ve had people tell me that I was easily amused. Their tone of voice made me think that this was a tone of reproach, but I was very tempted to answer in the words of the Dread Pirate Roberts (from the movie The Princess Bride) when Inigo Montoya told him that he was wonderful (as the two were fencing to the death):

Thank you. I’ve worked hard to become so.

It would be absurd to pretend that I didn’t understand what they meant by the reproach. I know why it is a reproach. It’s just wrong. It’s the same mistake that Ahab made in Moby Dick.

Gifted with the high perception, I lack the low, enjoying power.

It’s a common mistake. People who strive to enjoy something difficult to enjoy can lose the power to enjoy things that come more naturally because comparison makes it hard to see the good they’ve previously seen. This is an understandable weakness, but it is disastrous when it’s taken to be a virtue.

And, indeed, Ahab knew this, which you can clearly see if you read the whole passage:

Dry heat upon my brow? Oh! time was, when as the sunrise nobly spurred me, so the sunset soothed. No more. This lovely light, it lights not me; all loveliness is anguish to me, since I can ne’er enjoy. Gifted with the high perception, I lack the low, enjoying power; damned, most subtly and most malignantly! damned in the midst of Paradise!