“The greyer the world gets, the brighter it becomes”

From the cover story in The Economist:

Life is not a long slow decline from sunlit uplands towards the valley of death. It is, rather, a U-bend.

When people start out on adult life, they are, on average, pretty cheerful. Things go downhill from youth to middle age until they reach a nadir commonly known as the mid-life crisis. So far, so familiar. The surprising part happens after that. Although as people move towards old age they lose things they treasure—vitality, mental sharpness and looks—they also gain what people spend their lives pursuing: happiness.

…

The nadir varies among countries—Ukrainians, at the top of the range, are at their most miserable at 62, and Swiss, at the bottom, at 35—but in the great majority of countries people are at their unhappiest in their 40s and early 50s. The global average is 46.

…

The greyer the world gets, the brighter it becomes—a prospect which should be especially encouraging to Economist readers (average age 47).

I’ve never known how to evaluate such formal research into something as nebulous as “happiness.” But at 49, I can say to this story, “Bring it on!” On a more serious note, of course, the article calls us to make sure to teach young and old alike the source of happiness (Hint: Jesus had something to say about that in 8 “beatitudes” at the start of Matthew 5.)