The Waaaambulence

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Within two hours of waking, I had heard from two people already commenting on how crappy their lives are. Another friend pointed out that people frequently equate things with happiness that don't make it so. Just because you have money or gadgets or love doesn't mean you are happy. Some things aren't real.

Society is in many ways a fraud. They are trying to sell you a Ming Dynastic Vase, telling you that will make you happy. Assuming it's something you really want, what they're not telling you is that although it was made according to Ming Dynasty specifications and on location, it was also manufactured last week. When you oppose, it's somehow your fault that you won't accept the premise and swallow the lie. Money and stuff is really only useful if you have something on or for which you wish to spend it.

Many of the popular people in society paint a dishonest picture too. Although they tell us that all you need is love, I frequently hear from people who have love or married the person they love who then opine the fact that they have no friends and no life. How can that be? So many people think the only thing I lack for happiness is someone to love. Shoot, even I think that some times. Yet, so many people I know are only experiencing moderate happiness because they look at what they lack instead on what they have.

We are a piratical society. We sometimes don't care how much swag we have as long as there's swag in someone else's ship. Lewis wrote that it's about our pride, that pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man. Look at the Occupy Wall Street protestors. Their lives are better than others in many ways. They have jobs, they have clothes, they have their health, they have education, ad infinitum, all things for which an average modern Ethiopian or Jew from a 1940s ghetto would sell their soul. They are focused on what they lack and the disparity with other people.

Call the waaaambulence. I forget in which movie I heard this (maybe Bruce Willis in "The Kid"), but it's an interesting image. We are so whiney sometimes. We remember our riches, but not to thank our Maker from whom all blessings flow. We are ingrateful, and it shows. Without gratitude, I do not think it's possible to be truly happy.

Lots of people experience hard times. Most of them don't complain. No matter where you find yourself, it is likely that you will always know someone who has more of something than you do. It will always appear to be unfair in a free society. Rather than opine the disparity, we ought to applaud those who correctly apply their freedom. Rather than praising those who achieve, people view your success as an impediment to their own and complain bitterly. We hear the complainers because they shrilly cry their tales of woe from the rooftops. Some of them prosper because some of us feel bad for them. Why should we? Most people buckle down and put their shoulders to the wheel. These days, the Waaambulence is pretty busy because so many people think their sob story is a unique tale of misery and woe. It might take a long time for it to swing by and pick you up. By that time, maybe you can lift yourself and find an opportunity to lift someone else.

We are all of us richly blessed. We can think, reason, read, travel where the itch suits us, speak as we feel, eat what we can afford, and do what we like for a wage we consider fair enough. This is unique among the peoples and the ages of the earth. It is a time of great opportunity. These are the days, and I am determined to live them. God is good to me.