WHO'S HAPPY...?

How happy are you…?

Ever since Jefferson’s “pursuit of happiness,” Americans have had a fixation with this happiness thing. We are perhaps the first country who decided survival wasn’t enough; we also had the inalienable right to be happy. But

what gets complicated is how we define and pursue it.

To the Cubs and Sox it’s another win…to Hollywood another hit…..to a stockholder another split….to a banker another bailout...to a child another ice cream bar…..to a teenager a clear complexion.

Lately, it’s mainly come to mean being one of the Beautiful People. You know, the rich flawless few just before their stint in rehab. In a culture where you can buy a few diet pills, a new hair style, a little botox and a knock-off Armani, it’s actually possible to act like one of them.

The catch is -- and everyone from Freud to Oprah has preached it -- is you can never buy this happiness thing. You have to find it. Not on a shelf, inside yourself.

Self discovery like this can take a lifetime. Prayer, meditation, 12-step program, support group, backpacking to the Himalayas, or in my case perhaps a meaningful encounter with Catherine Zeta Jones. However it works for you, it only works from the inside out. In a glitzy consumer culture, it’s all too easy to believe it happens the other way around.

Some of the happiest people I’ve known seem to have transcended our proverbial happiness thing. All the way to the real stuff: Contentment, serenity and finally joy. Does that sound like saints and philosophers….? Yes, but In my experience it’s also meant school custodians and crossing guards. I keep writing about them, because well, because for me they seem to have some of the real stuff.

The custodians I’ve known don’t make a lot of money, and they’re not burdened with a lot of decision-making; but they always seem to take pride in maintaining a place for their kids. As for the those crossing guards in my town, they're usually retirees demonstrating that same kind of gentle pride in their kids.

.

I admit we can’t all become custodians and crossing guards. But maybe we can notice how they smile a lot. That just might excavate a few of those same life-can-beautiful smiles still left inside us. Crazy…? I don’t know about that. Jefferson’s “pursuit” should at least be worth the effort.