Are you happy?  A recent American poll indicated that, at this time, only about fifteen percent of Americans consider themselves to be "very happy."  Researchers cited many reasons, principally the pervasive financial and medical uncertainty, sparked by the effects of the coronavirus, flooding many American households.  Uncertainty tends to undermine happiness.

     We Westerners crave control.  We spend much of our lives trying to master them.  We never will.  Sociologists have found that it is people who live in non-industrialized societies who are the happiest.  They have more leisure time, they seek only what they need on a given day, and they do not hoard in expectation of difficult times ahead.  They trust themselves, they trust their environment.  Uncertainty is not an issue because they never seek total control of their lives.  They accept them as they are.

     Granted, we could raise all kinds of questions about the wisdom of accepting things as they are.  Nonetheless, there is a reason why so many world religions encourage their followers to focus not on what they can gain but rather on what they can give up.  To give up for the greater good, be it for people, society, or God.

     If we seek our own happiness, we may never find it.  If, however, we seek the happiness of others, we will find our own.

     Just ask Jesus.