Factoring Happiness

I've been doing this "Breaking Free" Bible study by Beth Moore, and today's lesson was about how so many of us dream of living "happily ever after." Of course, having two little girls I am surrounded by happily ever after stories, whether its Disney Princesses or Barbie Fairytopia. It got me to thinking--does our happiness decrease as we get older?

I mean, look at your kids. Kids are ridiculously happy almost all of the time. This morning, Kendall was SO happy because she found a worm on the sidewalk and it hadn't been squished yet. Julia was really happy with this new Barbie Mariposa Fairy she bought with her own money the other day (at least until the head unexpectedly popped off). Xavier gets deliriously happy whenever Bill walks into the house. It doesn't take much to make a child happy, look at the crayon and bubble industry if you don't believe me! Of course, it takes an equally small thing to make a child sad, but it seems like kids are just fountains of happiness, overflowing in spite of whatever other circumstances may occur. Even in the midst of tornado-hiding-in-the-basement-time last week, Kendall was just happy to have Vanessa cuddling her.

But as adults, not only do we seem to need more and bigger things to make us happy, we also don't seem to be happy as often. I wonder if this is just because, as we get older, we see so much more of the greater picture. We watch the news and read the paper and there just doesn't seem to be a whole lot to be happy about. It almost seems obscene to be happy, especially if its about something superficial, in the face of the tragedies and despair of others in the world. Plus we know just how fleeting happiness is, how you're never skinny enough or rich enough or loved enough to completely fill the hole in your heart. (See early 90's song by Extreme!) Kids just don't seem to get this.

It also makes me wonder, and I wonder this a lot, about seemingly vapid and thoughtless people (ex. Paris Hilton, Kim Kardashian, insert your favorite celeb here) who wander through life without much thought for the other humans on the planet. Are they really as oblivious as they seem? Are they just unaware of the pain that much of the world experiences on a given day? Or have they just gotten really good at blocking it all out with shopping, eating, drinking, partying...? Some days I wish I could take a page from their books and not think as much as I do. Of course, staying away from women's magazines, the Today show and Oprah would certainly help, but my mind is active enough without any outside encouragement. Would it be nice to live an oblivious, uninformed life sometimes?

And what about those tyrants, terrorists, totalitarian leaders (think Ahmadinejad, Bin Laden)? Do they grieve for people when tragedies occur? Do they look at their children and worry about all the bad things that could happen to them? Or are they just self-absorbed in a completely different way?

I guess when it comes down to it, probably one of the most valuable and poignant verses in the Bible would have to be where Jesus tells the disciples to be like the little children. In this case, maybe that's mostly impossible, I mean, we can't just forget that life is hard and often sad. But wouldn't it be nice if we could look at the world through the eyes of our children and see happiness where others might just miss it?

I'm going out to look for some worms.