Great stuff.

Speaking of the Joneses, I was just watching the perfect capsulization of that idea last night when American Beauty came on one of the cable channels. In order to be successful, one must project success (even if there's nothing but turmoil and failure on the inside). As the President might say, "How uniquely American."

I think because happiness can't be bought, or seen, or held in one's hand, we try to find things to stand in for happiness. Money works great for that! So do cars, big houses, decadent vacations, and beauty.

In the end, people get really tired of hearing that happiness can't be bought, or pursued, or seen. It can be chosen (happiness as choice???? Must blog about that one), it can be felt, it can radiate from the things one does to make the world a better place.

That's hard to use to impress the Joneses.

But it is far, far easier to sleep with at night.

Heather

That's just what I was trying to portray.

I've had this type of thought running through my head for ages now, but it was just the other day I had a conversation with a friend who emphasized how her boss at work was all about appearances. In the business world, I get that appearances can be meaningful, but in any facet of life it's possible to go way overboard worrying about how things look (as opposed to how they really are).

I was reminded of it again when reading a news item about a family that sued because because their teenage daughter died after having liposuction. Of course, I assumed the teenage daughter must have been morbidly obese for them to pursue this option, but instead she was an athletic girl apparently trying to avoid gaining her "freshman 15." I can't believe we've come to a point where people are so fixated on appearances that they'll undertake surgery to correct relatively minor issues.

I think we sometimes get drunk on the empty notion that improving appearances will make a meaningful difference in our lives when what we really need is a change beneath the surface - even if the change is simply to learn to accept ourselves.

Exactly. Almost like most people are more into proving their happy than being happy. The few I know who are really happy don't seem to care how it seems to anyone else.