Sidney Harris an old time newspaper columnist, in one of his articles wrote; “Unhappiness does not so much consist in getting what we want, as is not wanting it after we get it”. It seems to be a truism if we watch young children at play. I have always wondered why toddlers would take a new toy, play with it for a couple of minutes, discard the toy, then play with a set of old pots and pans for an hour. We have all heard adults pontificate their desires for things. When achieved, they, like the toddler lost interest and moved on to another gimmick showing no emotion of happiness, gratification or satisfaction.
This is probably the reason people talk about the good old days. When I remember the old days, I’m not quite certain they were as good as they are today. I know I am not the only one who thinks central heating and indoor plumbing are some of mans greatest inventions. In the old days, our playgrounds were not the fenced astro-turf, ergometric slides and teeter totters. More likely people of my generation played in a school ground with patches of grass and dirt. We went fishing and played marbles and scrub in spring and summer. In the fall it was a little hunting, touch football until it got cold enough to play hockey on natural ice. If there wasn’t a covered rink, the hockey practice began with scraping the ice, then shoveling the snow over the boards after which the fun began. We were happy because all the people in our town had the same thing-- a roof over their head, clothing some with patches to keep everyone warm and simple wholesome food. I didn’t know Campbells and Lipton made soup. At our house my mother made it with a soup bone or chicken, some flour and water to make homemade noodles and that was living. Saturdays after our games, a group of boys would go to the miners wash house, where we showered, raced around the building and even rolled naked in the coal slack pile. Best of all when we got home there were home made donuts or oshtipoks as my mother called them waiting for us. That was happiness. We didn’t have any great desires or possessions. We were living, breathing and savoring life.
Maybe the reason there is so much unhappiness today, is that we have too much. Some years ago I read that the happiest people are those people in the middle income brackets. The unhappiest tended to be either at the bottom or the top of the economic pile. People who are unable to satisfy their needs tend to be frustrated and unhappy. Those who live at the other end of the spectrum find the provision of their wants so simple they derive no satisfaction from having what they got. In some ways nothing matters in life if you don’t have a purpose. Even in the Nazi death camps the survivors were the people with unfinished business or a purpose.
Happiness therefore isn’t having the biggest and best of anything, the rarest or the most beautiful, but rather it is the direction you are moving and the purpose you have, personally, as a family, as a work unit or community. Stop for a minute look around, then count your blessings especially that you are living in Canada.
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