Why are people so miserable?
Are you happy?
I once attended a play where these were the first words you heard the narrator say. On stage, the lights were all dark except for one spotlight shone on a big smiley face floating in the air. It made me and everyone else in the audience laugh. The rest of the performance was very funny with actors on stage using puppets to act out the story of why people have reactions like happiness and sadness in their lives, and about how senseless and vapid many reasons for our frequent mood changes really are.
It was very clever and, I like to think, left the audience overall with a sense of happiness.
I was thinking of this play and that big question, “Are you happy?” the other day while looking around a restaurant we were visiting. I thought of my mom and dad who really were two of the happiest, most easygoing people I have ever known. Maybe that’s where I got my (mainly) upbeat disposition and generally positive outlook on life.
Both my parents and I were people watchers and would spend time waiting at a restaurant, an airport or even on the Sea Isle City or Ocean City boardwalks at the Jersey Shore just enjoying watching the people going by and laughing at different things they did or said.
When cellphones first became pervasive, Mom was waiting with me at the gate for one of my flights (back when non-travelers could still come to the gates with you) and started laughing. She said, “Every single person here is looking down at their phones. No one is talking to one another!”
I always notice how miserable most people usually look when they do travel. I can understand that for business travelers or if you have to go somewhere you don’t want to, but you would think anyone going on a vacation would at least smile once in a while.
Back to the restaurant, I looked around and noticed nearly everyone around us was sitting stern-faced with grim looks and no smiles.
We’re still in Mexico for a few weeks on our first “retired winter snowbird” adventure, so you would think people around us would be smiling and soaking up the sun, beach, tacos and tequila. Instead, these were snowbird retirees, mainly from Ontario, Canada, looking bored and miserable. When I met eyes with some of them, I smiled, and some did smile back. Others, surprisingly, did not.
People have different dispositions and life journeys, and I do realize many are dealing with illness and grief and all other sorts of terrible problems. I don’t expect everyone to be happy. It did, however, take me back to that stage play (which I saw in Canada, by the way) and those eternal words, “Are you happy?”
In that moment, it made me laugh and I hope that reading this will make you happy today!
Kristin Emery can be reached at kristinemery1@yahoo.com.