Happiness, happiness

The other day a facebook link was saying that the British are uniformly miserable and unhappy and at the time I begged to differ. I have mused on the question a little since and tried to decide whether it is true or not.  It is true that there are an awful lot of moaners who are not content with their lot but is this the same thing? It is a characteristic of humanity to dream of improving their life, and this is not necessarily a bad thing or we would still be living in caves and THERE WOULDN`T BE ENOUGH CAVES TO GO ROUND! But there is a difference in striving for improvement and moaning about life in general.
  I have always, like Ken Dodd been blessed with a feeling of happiness although things have not been easy sometimes.  I have found though that if you`re patient and not too hasty things tend to get better after a time
   Mind you, I feel that I was born at a fortunate time. My elder brother was borne 4 years earlier than I ( I was born in `42 ) and he had to live through post-war austerity. My late teens and early twenties coincided with the Swinging Sixties a time of national confidence and full employment. Even the cars and bikes were much more interesting than the current look-alikes. It`s true they were less reliable but they were also less complicated and  if they did break down you had a chance of fixing the problem with a screw-driver or spanner rather than a diagnostic computer!
  Houses were also more affordable though it was always a gross effort to afford a mortgage. The first house I bought cost £4525 Unbelievable now though wages were much lower too. Inflation is of course the reason for the increase but if you already own a house this gives a feeling of profit.
  I suppose it`s paradoxical  to comment as I`m writing on a computer but I`m glad that most of my life was spent before they became commonplace. They are not an unmixed blessing and have done much to spoil job security and increase unemployment. The rapid changes they foster gives a feeling of insecurity to the generation raised before they arrived and the current generation are hooked on them to the detriment of their health.
   I also feel privileged in being able to retire at sixty in good health. For many months after retiring and coming to live in France I had recurrent nightmares that I would be told there had been a mistake and I should return to the office to recommence work. It was like a permanent holiday, doing what we always did on holiday! The generation working now face pressure to retire at 70 or even 75 to spend a shorter retirement in poor health. Poor things!
  I hope these musings don`t seem the work of someone moping after the past I do feel that I have been lucky to live through a vintage set of years. I hope there will be a few more to savour in the future!