I subscribed to “The Week Junior,” a weekly newspaper for kids to give my six-year-old son something to read this summer, and give him the opportunity to learn about the broader world. Funny enough, the first issue included a study that confirmed something I’d anecdotally observed through my life abroad:
People in impoverished and even war-torn countries seem happier, more content, and certainly less neurotic day-to-day than your typical middle-class American.
Materialism is a philosophical dead end, that only leads to increasing consumerism to fill the emptiness in oneself. Faith, family, friends and adherence to simple virtues is the starting point to satisfaction and contentment in life. I’d never fault anybody for pursuing a comfortable standard of living, but the American dream was supposed to be about achieving a high enough standard to pursue the more noble pursuits unencumbered. Instead it seems like it always turns into a quest for a bigger house, a nicer truck, a bigger boat, and a more lavish vacation just over the horizon.
We are generally more miserable than people with empty bellies, low physical security, and astronomical infant and child mortality, who suffer violent political opppression on a regular basis.
I suspect this is because, despite all our material wealth and comfort, we lack that which people need most: Genuine connection to a small group of people who value and depend upon us, giving us purpose in our daily existence.
That might be something worth pondering as it relates to one’s own life this week.
Amplified Being 