How much money does a person need to supply their needs?
How big or fancy does a house need to be to protect a person from the elements and make them feel comfortable?
How many vehicles are necessary to transport a family to the places they need and want to go?
How expensive and how exotic does food need to be to taste good and nourish the body?
The questions could go on and on and never get a satisfactory answer. It's all relative, I guess. The underlying aspect of the whole issue is happiness. What does it take to be happy?
Our family was probably poor. However, we always had a house to live in, clothes to wear and food to eat. We didn't have a car, but we knew people who did and they were usually willing to take us where we needed to go.
I don't know about my mother and brother, but I was happy--or should I say content. I was happy when I could play on my swing set; slide down the sliding board, hang from the bar by my knees and ankles; or jump from the shed roof pretending to be Superman.
I was content, that is, until my youngest older brother would come along and taunt me in some way. I am still content, in fact, happy, with the little cottage in the woods that I share with Sweetheart, even though the wild critters come and eat the crops in my garden.
There is big news now about high-ranking government officials who may have been engaged in illicit and illegal foreign affairs for personal gain. My question is: if you are already making millions of dollars, how many more do you need to be happy? A person can only live in one house at a time, no matter how big it is. One yacht is all that is needed to have parties and fall into the water.
If a person has to go to all of the work to deceive others and commit fraud, why not put that ingenuity to work in a legitimate business?
And what about drug smugglers? They invade certain body parts to conceal drugs and bring them into unauthorized areas in order to make easy money. That doesn't sound easy to me and I know it wouldn't make me happy. And how happy can a person be sitting in jail when he/she gets caught?
Of course, I think most people who are millionaires, billionaires and trillionaires worked for their money or were born into families that did. Are they happy?
Would they be just as happy living in a little cottage in the woods with the wild critters? Would they be content to swing on their swing set or jump off the shed roof like Superman?
I feel sorry for people who never had that opportunity and I don't need a yacht or mansion to be happy.
I have toured mansions that once belonged to the rich and famous. They are nice to look at, but I wouldn't want to live there.
Dorothy is the author of two books—“Miles and Miracles” and “Getting It All Together “. You can purchase a book or make a comment by emailing her at dorothybutzknight@gmail.com