Seasons Change
It must be the seasons changing, but everyone I know seems to be a little depressed lately, and as cycles tend to go, this in turn depresses me. Fortunately, I think the cycle stops with me, or almost at least, the only one I think I affect is our shop cat, Lucy, but I got some prozac from Mexico for her, so she seems to be hanging in there.
There are lots of studies that show that although material wealth and standards of living go up, overall happiness really doesn't. Everything is relative I suppose. I guarantee you that if we could transport the folks who think life sucks at their job now back to a factory job in 1840's London, their happiness level would find all new lows. But eventually they'd settle in, just like the folks we'd bring into the future, who at first would be overjoyed at the prospect of living past 45, only working 40 hrs a week, having all of their children survive, and getting to play XBox. Of course, they'd eventually get spoiled, have all the normal family problems, hate their job and want a new XBox 360. OK, well, maybe they'd still appreciate life a little more than we would, but it'd happen to a degree.
Thing is, we don't even need a time machine, we could just travel to the Sudan, Malawi, Bangladesh or 50 other countries that not a single one of us could begin to imagine what life is really like. Madonna took some heat for adopting a Malawian baby last week. I try to avoid celebrity news at all costs, so I don't really know what the controversy was, but I know life is almost hopeless for the millions of orphans in Africa. One of them got lucky, and hopefully the attention will help more.
I'm not saying we shouldn't feel down, it's just human nature and not a function of the reality around us. No matter how much (or little) money we have, finding someone to love and something that is fulfilling seems to transcend almost everything when it comes to measuring happiness. I think it helps though to remember both how fortunate we are, and that we could just as easily have been born half a world away, where our worst days now would seem like a dream.
I wish I had some eloquent advice as to how to find happiness and fulfillment, but I am rooting for you in the search. In the meantime, talking about things usually helps, so let me know if I can help there, or if all else fails, Meow-Mix with ground up Prozac seems to work wonders.
There are lots of studies that show that although material wealth and standards of living go up, overall happiness really doesn't. Everything is relative I suppose. I guarantee you that if we could transport the folks who think life sucks at their job now back to a factory job in 1840's London, their happiness level would find all new lows. But eventually they'd settle in, just like the folks we'd bring into the future, who at first would be overjoyed at the prospect of living past 45, only working 40 hrs a week, having all of their children survive, and getting to play XBox. Of course, they'd eventually get spoiled, have all the normal family problems, hate their job and want a new XBox 360. OK, well, maybe they'd still appreciate life a little more than we would, but it'd happen to a degree.
Thing is, we don't even need a time machine, we could just travel to the Sudan, Malawi, Bangladesh or 50 other countries that not a single one of us could begin to imagine what life is really like. Madonna took some heat for adopting a Malawian baby last week. I try to avoid celebrity news at all costs, so I don't really know what the controversy was, but I know life is almost hopeless for the millions of orphans in Africa. One of them got lucky, and hopefully the attention will help more.
I'm not saying we shouldn't feel down, it's just human nature and not a function of the reality around us. No matter how much (or little) money we have, finding someone to love and something that is fulfilling seems to transcend almost everything when it comes to measuring happiness. I think it helps though to remember both how fortunate we are, and that we could just as easily have been born half a world away, where our worst days now would seem like a dream.
I wish I had some eloquent advice as to how to find happiness and fulfillment, but I am rooting for you in the search. In the meantime, talking about things usually helps, so let me know if I can help there, or if all else fails, Meow-Mix with ground up Prozac seems to work wonders.