What is happiness?

This morning I watched a "Today" show interview with the mother of a young boy who was set on fire by several of his classmates after he reported that they were attempting to steal his father's bike. The mother begged for people across the country to work to end the violence that seems to be prevalent in the lives of so many young people today. Her words made me think about another young man who was recently beat to death by his classmates and even back to when two young men killed 12 of their classmates at Columbine High School in Colorado.

Interestingly enough the interview that offered a mother's plea to stop the violence was broadcast immediately after an interview with Michael Moore, who recently completed the documentary "Capitalism: A Love Story" and in 2002 released "Bowling For Columbine." Today's interview with Moore focused on the recent controversy surrounding Wall Street's decision to award billions of dollars in bonuses to executives this year, before our economy has rebounded. In the interview Moore said that there is a growing anger in this country.

I can't help but wonder if Moore is correct. Is there a growing anger in the United States and if so, are parents unknowingly passing that anger onto their children? It's easy to be angry with our government when we have so many people out of work, so many families losing their homes and so many Americans suffering hardships. Yet, I hope that as parents, Americans see the importance of teaching their children that happiness is not something that we receive through a paycheck, a good job, a home, a car or any other material possession. Happiness is discovered in a child's laughter, time spent as a family around the dinner table, enjoying a baseball game on the television with your father or barbecuing on the back patio with your spouse.

I am just like everyone else in that I can't wait to see our economy rebound, but I hope that we are all taking time right now to realize that money and material possessions are not the most important things in our lives. Maybe if Americans spent more time showing their children what happiness really is and less time worrying about increasing their wealth we would see a difference in the behavior of our children and future generations.