Easter Monday will be my 40th birthday. Inevitably, reaching such milestones is liable to induce a certain amount of reflection on what one has made of life so far, and what still remains to be done. I don’t think I have anything remarkable to add to such a well-worn subject. However, as I reach what is, hopefully, around about the half-time mark, there is one theme – a somewhat theological idea – whose importance I understand more and more, namely taking delight in life and in the world.
The writer Peter Hitchens once wrote a moving tribute to his late aunt’s joie de vivre, noting as evidence that well into old age she took great pleasure in sitting on the front row of the top deck of the bus. That seemed to be a wonderful small example of a person who was able to find innocent pleasure in the most simple of joys, and I have often kept it in mind when musing on the question of how to live a happy life. A related sentiment is expressed on a prayer card that my mother has kept in her kitchen for as long as I can remember. “A sour old person is one of the crowning works of the devil,” which I take to be a warning against letting peevishness and grumpiness become our default as the frustrations and difficulties of life accumulate.
