I spend a lot of time around older people. In fact, I probably spend most of my day listening to folks more than twice my age. Don't feel bad - I enjoy it. Truly. My grandparents generation is a group of people rich in wisdom that I may never have the opportunity to gain without their insight. Not much of a history student, I've learned about the hardships of this generation through their emotional stories. The soldier whose job it was to execute the line of civilians, or the heroic American pilot who was shot down three times. The holocaust survivor who hid under a latrine after watching her entire family be executed or the woman whose baby brother came home from war in a body bag. The very large families (imagine being one of 16 kids!) who muddled through the Great Depression and learned to "make do". And yet, in the face of hardship beyond what my generation has ever seen, these people are still generally happy. Many have pain daily, have buried their children and have out lived their spouse. How can happiness be even remotely possible?
I've asked many questions. I'm curious as much as I need to make conversation. Mostly, I hear "you really have no other choice but to go on." Imagine? Most describe in their own way that happiness for them is a decision. Wow.
I wonder, for this generation of Americans who have always had so much, why is the abundance mentality so difficult? We aren't living in conditions like they were! Yes, we are at war. But not like during WWII. Yes we have a recession... but not a depression! We have the abundance. Why don't we see it?
It's that we don't appreciate it. It's that we haven't been forced to look for it. We take it for granted.
So wise up, kids! Find a way to be thankful every day for the crazy abundance of friends, family, food, income potential and peaceful living you have access to. And don't waste an ounce of any of it.
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