Before jumping with joy, be sure to consider the furniture, so as not to worry your family.

I know not everyone is happy, and not everyone is growing happier. In America, literally millions of people are now out of work, and the country does not have a security net that catches all of these people. There are many who lie awake at night, filled with fear and worry.  Where will they get food? Where will they get medication they need? How will their children get an education now?

And yet, even in America, the vast majority of people are better off that they were twenty years ago.  If we compare to thirty years ago, when I was still young, the difference is really striking.  Even now, the economy is technically growing.  If most people even half-heartedly cared about each other, or at least pretended to when others saw them, it would not cost them much to help the poor.  In so far as there is a problem, it is a problem of extreme selfishness, or “narcissism” as it is called these days.

For the great number of people who live in wonderful times, who have more than they have ever had before, is it not even a little shameful to not help a friend or relative who has worked hard all their life and yet fallen on hard times?  Would not gratitude, if you knew what that was, make it bearable to give a little to charity or at least pay your taxes?

Make no mistake: We live in wonderful times. Many illnesses that could not be cured are now considered mostly harmless. Basic knowledge of healthy eating and exercise is everywhere, and there is less and less poison in the food. The air is cleaner than it was a generation ago, and the forests are growing all over the northern hemisphere.

Even many of the poor now have access to the Internet, and there is beautiful music available for free, and more books than you can read in a lifetime. Whether you are looking for entertainment, news or words of wisdom, there is more of it than you could possibly use. Thinking back to when I was a child, reading the phone book and dictionary to satisfy my curiosity, it is as if I wandered in a desert where you had to dig for drops of water, and now have come to a wide river of fresh water, so great that we cannot see the end of it. It is amazing, nothing less. And we can meet people from around the globe, share their thoughts and memories as friends.

Even while some of the rich countries struggle in some ways, most of the world is still growing rapidly richer.  Each year, millions in China and India are quietly rising from poverty into the life of the middle class, where they no longer have to worry about food and clothes and other necessities, but can begin to enjoy luxuries and hobbies that used to be reserved for the well off. Those who walked are biking, and those who road a bike are driving. Those who lived in a hovel have a small house, and children who used to work on the farm are going to school.  All over the world things are getting better, except for a few sad and war-torn places.

New windmills and solar panels are being put up every year, and improvements in industry make it possible to produce over 1% more with the same energy for each passing year. Low-energy light bulbs are quietly replacing older models, and the new LED lamps not only shine as brightly with a fraction of the energy, but also have the potential to last for decades or even centuries, if such a thing can be imagined. They have no parts that move or grow hot.

The world has never been as educated as today. Both in rich and less rich countries, the number of students is swelling.  Children start school at a younger age and stay longer. Now, that may be a mixed blessing with all the political propaganda being served at our colleges, but surely people are more knowledgeable than ever before.  The accumulation of knowledge from science is skyrocketing thanks to easier publishing and spreading of data. From the depths of the oceans to outer space where new Earth-like planets are being discovered, we are seeing what was invisible to a thousand generations before us.

Why is there not an epidemic outbreak of gratitude and joy all over the world? Sure, there are many happy people, and more are coming. But we live in an age of wonders, we live in times that the greatest dreamers could not dream of, times that few prophets dared hope would ever come.  How can we restrain our joy long enough to make it through our workday without breaking out in song and dance?  An age of freedom, an age of prosperity, an age of knowledge, an age of mobility, an age of connection, an age of arts.

If our ancestors had seen the way we live, in a vision, suddenly as they lifted their head and dried the sweat off their forehead… would it not look to them as if the High Spirits of Heaven had descended in glory, wielding powers beyond comprehension, to bless this age with miracles never before seen or heard of? Who among them could have seen us today and would not have fallen to their knees in awe and gratitude that the seed of their life would be allowed to live in such an age?

Please, wake up, even for a minute, and know that you have been allowed to live in wonderful times.