HAPPINESS AND OTHER THINGS

Ok, time to blow off some steam.

We hear a lot today about the economic differences between first and third world nations.  We use a lot more natural resources and our standard of living is much higher. It's interesting that a higher standard of living does not necessarily correlate with being more content or happy. I think I know why. We are prisoners of our success. Happiness seems to be connected to something other than possessions.

 I watched a movie about the lost boys of Sudan. In one scene a boy calls home.  It is a one way conversation. His mother is telling him to send money, now that he has a job. From her perspective, he has it made. He doesn't even try to explain that he is broke. He knows she wouldn't understand if he tried to explain his efforts to afford car insurance, health insurance, rent, and a host of other expenses that she doesn't have. So he patiently listens to her diatribe and tells her he loves her before ending the call. You get the distinct impression that he wishes he could go back to the simple life. His face has "trapped" written all over it.

 I felt sorry for him. I was raised in this culture from infancy. He was thrust into it as a teenager by well meaning adults from an outside culture. It's no wonder he was depressed. Did we bring him to the United States to live the good life of facing the stress of a 40 hour work week?  What if we would have invested the same amount of money to train him to set up a business in his own culture?  Perhaps his happiness quotient would have been higher if he had remained in his own culture as an independent business owner. What makes our culture so superior that we think it is the only road to success?

Like I said, just blowing off steam.