[sailaway21]

The part of the article that I found most interesting was the reference to accumulated wealth and possessions. Even though older people had accumulated more of both their level of happiness did not rise in proportion.

Life is odd. I've had some seriously fast and wonderful cars in my time but, on reflection, I can't say I ever had as much fun in any of them as I did in the first car I ever bought for myself; a used '71 Beetle! I was just thinking the other day how I take for granted that the car's defroster works. In a '71 Beetle there was sort of a defroster, it worked on the convection principle, and you had to scrape the inside of the windshield as you drove in the winter. After about a half hour of driving you usually had enough heat within the car to maintain conditions. Of course it had bias ply tires, too. Now I take reliable, hassle free mobility almost for granted. And while I have it, I can't say that it's anymore "fun" than those years in the Bug.

The Bible commands us to be happy in whatsoever state we're in and I cannot think of better advise or credo to live by. For myself, if I take life's flat tires not as trauma but as merely an opportunity to transcend unforeseen circumstances I find that I go to bed happy and rewarded, just not happy and rewarded in the way I'd planned on starting out that morning. I make less than half what I did in the late 80's and yet I really feel like I want for nothing and my happiness level is as good as I daily make it.

I'd like to have both a Flicka and a nice kitchen for my wife. They'll either happen or they won't. In the meantime, tomorrow's challenges well met are enough. It's taken me almost 52 years to get to this point but then, I like to think that my god is a patient one. (g)