There wasn't much of my grandfather to start with and by the time cancer finished devouring his slight frame there was very little left. But even though he's been in the ground for half a century, something about him has been nagging at me lately.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
Why, unlike so many in the world these days, was he always so damn happy?
By any modern measure Pop had few reasons to be cheerful. His father died young, leaving behind a brood of nine children in the midst of the Great Depression. Faced with few choices, his mother became expert at dodging rent collectors, moving her family from one cheap lodging to another every few months.
Dinner was often old bread doused in dripping with a little hope spread thinly on top. The kids huddled beneath blankets as threadbare as their clothes. Pop took a job in a glass factory long before he needed to shave and stayed there for the rest of his life. When he married, he and his wife moved into a small Housing Commission home with tissue-thin walls and an outdoor dunny and thought they were royalty.
Pop could so easily have grown into an old man wallowing in bitterness and victimhood. But instead of whingeing he whistled. Constantly. Small pleasures - an evening cup of Bonox, the football on the radio or a crossword waiting to be completed - were treated with the reverence of minor miracles.
So I've been wondering what he would have thought about the findings of the latest World Happiness Report, surely the most ironically titled publication on the planet. This annual compendium of misery and discontent has once again found rising unhappiness in affluent Western countries to the point where many experts believe it has become an epidemic.
That's right. At a time when never in history have so many had it so good - we live longer, travel further, eat better and are wealthier, healthier and arguably safer than any previous generation - we are feeling lonelier, more anxious and increasingly dissatisfied.
It's hard to argue with these findings. Happiness studies deserve our scepticism but repeated surveys across Europe, North American and Australia keep producing the same results, particularly among young people.
You could sense the general mood even before Donald Trump's latest excursion in the Middle East upended the global economy.
Everything felt...a little off.
Finger-pointing throws up the usual suspects. Consumerism makes us want endlessly. As soon as we acquire something we're conditioned to lust for whatever comes next - the house, the car, the holiday, the TV with a screen larger than a 1970s Drive-In.
Life, we've learned to accept, is one long perpetual upgrade.
There's also the modern phenomenon of choice. From endless grocery aisles to prospective lifestyles, careers and relationships, we're encouraged to think we can have whatever we want, only to discover, like diners at an all-you-can-eat buffet, that abundance delivers the fear of missing out or of making the wrong choice.
Let's not under-estimate our corrosive tendency to compare ourselves with those better off. My grandfather probably measured himself against his workmates, neighbours and the odd celebrity he saw on television. Now we compare our lives to those carefully curated stars of social media. Hard to feel content when everyone else seems happier and better off in their worlds of staged lighting and soft filters.
There was nothing ennobling about the poverty Pop endured as a child. We often over-romanticise the Depression because of the steel it instilled in many of those who lived through it. But not everyone emerged from its brutal hardships with the cheerfulness of my grandfather.
Yet I have a strong feeling that when he went to his grave he took with him a fairly obvious, if difficult to learn, solution to this epidemic of unhappiness plaguing our comfortable lives.
Pop didn't have many possessions and what he did have he and my grandmother repaired with stitches, glue and crossed fingers because replacements were rarely an option.
His expectations were modest. Surely that is the point. Happiness, like any measurement, depends on what you compare it with.
Expect a lot and the world will inevitably disappoint.
Expect little and it will always surprise you.
HAVE YOUR SAY: What do you believe is causing this epidemic of unhappiness? Give us some reasons to be cheerful - what in life brings you happiness? Email us: echidna@theechidna.com.au
SHARE THE LOVE: If you enjoy The Echidna, forward it to a friend so they can sign up, too.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:
- President Donald Trump has told the nation in a televised speech that the United States military has nearly completed the goals it had set out to accomplish in its war with Iran and that the conflict will soon be ending.
- Police are requesting even more time to defend a lawsuit brought by a federal Greens candidate who was maimed during a protest.
- A move to hide the names of alleged Bondi terrorist Naveed Akram's family has been rejected despite death threats and harassment by vigilantes.
THEY SAID IT: "Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go." - Oscar Wilde
YOU SAID IT: You can't plan for every emergency. But when one is staring you in the face - the risk relying on oil from the Middle East - governments should prepare for the worst.
"We should have been ready for this fuel crisis," writes Lee. "Not only because of the buildup we saw, but because we have already been through it. When Russia invaded Ukraine we had an energy crisis and we did nothing to be prepared for the next one. With Trump in the White House for the next three years, we should be ready for anything. I also think we should have gone to fuel rationing immediately. It doesn't stop people getting what they need, it just stops hoarding. Just this morning, when getting my $82 worth of fuel, there was a fellow beside us filling his five jerry cans."
Brenda writes: "I can afford fuel. I want to conserve fuel for others so we are driving much less, we combine trips (haircut, pharmacy, fish market), take the bus and walk to local shops. We are in a sorry state of unpreparedness but even 90 days supply may be insufficient if this debacle of Trump's own making continues. This feels to me like insurance. Storing 90 days of fuel costs about $20 billion a year? That's a lot of money for possibly a rare event. How many people take these risks in everyday life? Take a risk. Underinsure. Then bitterly regret it."
"I recently had a conversation where I was told nurses who work off farm have been resigning in droves because the costs of agricultural work (fuel, labour, time) mean that they need to work on their property," writes Joanne. "So in a major regional area (I am in Albury), not only do we have the fuel shortage stresses but the second and third order effects of a potential health system failure. A small community nearby has had to make the decision to prioritise farms getting the available fuel to be able to survive, while the townies car pool, make do and otherwise try support their farmer colleagues."
Phil writes: "It's impossible to plan for every eventuality. We don't plan for nuclear bomb attack or asteroid landing or new viruses because it costs money and may not happen. Iran has had the Strait of Hormuz ever since the overthrow of the Shah in the 1970s. Flow of oil etc through there has been relatively uninterrupted for 50 years. Large scale storage of fuel costs money in capital, maintenance and labour. Eventually large scale storage will run out. Even China with its massive storage capacity has taken measures to restrict usage. Government is only able to control what is controllable with the resources at its command. Sometimes shit happens."
"Successive federal governments of all persuasions have been asleep at the wheel for decades when it comes to fuel security," writes Paul. "The topic gets raised from time to time but nothing has changed. We take the easy way out and do nothing. Because it's cheaper and less trouble to do nothing. Well, the chickens are now knocking on the henhouse door. What's the bet that after this crisis we still won't make any significant changes?"
Ian writes: "I suspect that governments have war gamed critical supply chain scenarios as you suggest. Imagine the scene - a room full of strategists, analysts and subject matter experts, with representatives from all government departments, ASIO and the military. Someone says 'What if the US and Israel start a war with Iran without consulting neighbouring countries or their closest allies, no plan for exit and no contingency planning to deal with the global implications?' There is silence in the room and then suddenly it bursts into raucous laughter. The mediator tries to bring the room to order and says 'Don't be so stupid, that could never happen. Let's move on to something more realistic.'"
Your Echidna will return on Tuesday, April 7. Stay safe this Easter.
