28 September 2005

Unrequited expectations

Today at the end of the Liz Hale show, Enid Greene made the comment that much of the stress in our lives is due to the pace of today’s living. I have to respectfully disagree with the honored chairwoman. The pace of today’s living is a symptom of the problem. The true problem is a false expectation of guaranteed happiness.

The Declaration of Independence states that we have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Please note that we are entitled to pursue happiness we are not given the right to happiness. An LDS scripture states that “Men are that they might have joy.” 2 Nephi 2: 25 Again this is not happiness. Happiness and joy have two separate scriptural meanings. A comparison of the words in context shows that happiness is a transitory state and joy is a fulfillment of the Savior’s promises of life eternal. The second of the Noble Truths of the Buddha is that Sorrow is a result of ignorance or desire.
Most of the greatest generation knew that they would not experience a life of happiness. They did not rely on outside forces to pleasure them. They knew that life was work and that happiness was fleeting. So when did we start thinking that we are entitled to happiness. Was it in the feminist movement which told us that women could have it all? I do hope we’ve learned that they neglected to tell us that “having all we want” meant that something ends up being sacrificed. Was it the 60’s mentality that told us to “turn on, tune in and drop out?” (Funny, how that was done by college students with rich parents to bail them out). Was it the 70’s where we were told to live for “ME”? I still contend that the ME mentality led to the 80’s greed where in order to have what I want; someone has to pay for it and I don’t want to work and save for it.
That brings us to an entire generation today that is being raised as selfish brats (with some exceptions). Their parents are doing it in the guise of helping the children but it doesn’t help a child to give them everything they want and not teaching them the value of work. It doesn’t help our children to prevent them from failing while they are young or mitigating the consequences of their actions. The end result will be self absorbed adults who don’t understand why the credit card company doesn’t pay attention to their tantrums.

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