My daughter is a student at Simon Fraser University.
It's been a long time since I've seen the inside of a classroom but I remember one of my college lectures like it happened yesterday. I was a college student living in Toronto.
A visiting professor, a sociologist from McMaster University, gave a lecture to our class on happiness. According to the professor, people who identified themselves as being happy share four things in common. They have a partner, someone to share their life with. They have a passion for something and, if they are fortunate, they're able to turn their passion into a career. They are blessed with good health for most of their life and for want of a better word they are lucky in life. Bad things can happen to good people. It's random.
We knew all about that. At the time one of our classmates was lying unconscious in a hospital, the victim of domestic violence. She recovered from her injuries but never returned to school.
The professor's theory was simple and it made sense to me. I decided then and there to become a sociologist and I transferred into the sociology department at SFU the following year.
Anyway, one morning last week I dropped my daughter off at SFU and as I watched her walk up those same stairs that I walked up almost 50 years ago, memories of that lecture came flooding back to me.
Many of us who attended the professor's lecture were still teenagers. Would the good professor have given the same lecture if his audience was a group of seniors? The professor isn't here to answer that question but I suspect not.
Most university students don't worry about outliving their savings. Lots of seniors do. Someone once said that those who think money can't buy happiness are not shopping at the right stores.
Are the very rich happier than the rest of us? The research shows that over time, lottery winners are no happier than they were before hitting the jackpot; and, as long as retirees have enough money to cover their basic expenses, more money has little effect on happiness.
What matters more?
Good health and good friends.
The advice to seniors on how to stay healthy hasn't changed much over the years. Eat right, exercise in moderation and get the right amount sleep. The idea that social interaction is linked to happiness also isn't new. But some of the newer research that suggests it's better for seniors to be overweight than underweight and that a network of good friends is more likely than close family members to increase longevity in older people, is certainly raising a few eyebrows.
Is there a connection between aging and happiness? Study after study concludes that older doesn't just mean wiser, it also means happier.
None of us are happy all the time. But happiness appears to be one of the benefits that come with age.
Tom Carney is the former executive director of the Lionsview Seniors' Planning Society. Ideas for future columns are welcome. [email protected]
