DEATH OF THE HAPPY ENDING?

Fresh from reading an excerpt of Ted Kennedy's letter to the Pope prior to his death, I was struck by the frailty of the human spirit. Here was a man powerful enough to have the leader of the free world hand-deliver a letter to the leader of one of the biggest religious institution in the world.The full text can be found here.

This isn't a eulogy to the life and times of Ted Kennedy but rather the humility which his letter shows. A man with power. A family that was seen to carry the hopes and imagination of a generation that believed in dreams. Here was a family that was linked to Camelot, the legendary kingdom led by Arthur. And with his death is the question posed; is the happy ending dying? Are we as a human race losing faith in the ability to be dreamers and be happy?

Pessimism is slowly creeping into our collective consciousness cleverly disguised as realism. If you expect the worst then there's no way you'll ever be disappointed, right? This culture has gone through every facet of our lives and is best illustrated in the popular media. Remember the days when the end of the movie invariably constituted a happy albeit metaphorical walk into the sunset? If Cinderella was adapted to a feature length movie then it would probably end with her being sent to work in a sweat shop somewhere in a East Asia.


There's a sense of hope being slowly taken away from us. Feels like every single time we hit rock bottom another rung falls off the cosmic ladder and we are plunged into another descent. Tragedy sells. Papers with screaming headlines of a bomb or typhoon appeal move off the shelf faster. The news is more likely to begin with some sort of scandal in order to increase ratings. The world is a willing audience.

Children are less likely to run around with stories about Santa and the Tooth Fairy but rather the scary neighbour who is always trying to give them candy. And as adults we are losing our inner children as we are weighed down by our own problems. To be honest when you are worrying about the mortgage or the next meal, it's hard to indulge in concepts like love and happiness. The happy ending becomes a fabled mirage.

True. The world is becoming more dangerous and there's always something bigger around the corner to worry about. In that sense I feel like there's never been a better time to dream. Find that which makes you happy and latch on to it. The time you most desperately need to be able to swim is when you're drowning so forget about the cold water for a minute and paddle to shore.