The Little Bluebird of Happiness

Yesterday I posited that Americans are better off now than they were 30 years ago, and I maintain this is true for all income categories, races, genders and sexual orientations. But then I asked if we are happier. That's a much tougher question to answer.

And I think my answer would have to be no.

I reason on this wise: I am happy when I choose to be. I am sad when I choose to be. It is true that certain food produces chemicals in my body that push me toward sensations that are like happiness; it is likewise true that other people have chemical imbalances that make it practically impossible to overcome depression. I am not talking about these people. Generally speaking, for most of us, our happiness is internally derived and decided on (or against). I've met really, really happy people that were dirt poor, and rich people that were miserable, and vice-versa. Bet you have, too.

Since I am conservative, and one of the tenets of conservatism is that people are basically the same wherever and whenever you go, I therefore conclude that people are deciding to be happy in roughly the same proportions they used to. Therefore we are not happier in the aggregate.

There is another component to this, as I believe in God, and I believe that doing what God instructs is a good way to be happy permanently. Not doing what God instructs is a good way to be miserable, internal decisions or no. I know people that have a foundation of uncrackable happiness, who do not ever seem to be rocked, who show no sign of stress, who meet the world with a cheerful heart no matter what happens to them. These people universally have a deep faith in God. Watch La Vita e Bella, if you can stand to, and that's what Roxanne Clark was like. She died a few years ago after being in more or less constant pain for years. She was cheerful to the last. She had no regard for herself, but extended herself to help and lift others every minute I knew her. I do not believe that this kind of happiness is an internal decision so much as a life decision, a commitment to do what God instructs and a trust in Him that He knows what's best, whether we can see it or not.

And returning to the question I began with, I don't believe that the number of these giants is increasing much, either, so again, I have to say that we're about as happy as we've ever been, in general. For all my marvelous gadgets, indistinguishable from magic, I've never been happier than I was thirty years ago on Christmas morning in my front yard with my football and my brand-new Rams helmet from the Sears catalogue. I've been just that happy, and my happiness has become deeper and richer, but that, ladies and gentlemen, was a fullness of joy. You can't get happier than that.

Have you such a moment you'd be willing to share?