Joy

You won't find many poorer people anywhere in the world. But you won't find them any happier, either. Yes, this photo was staged. I asked them to jump. But truth be told, they did this almost all day completely unscripted. I watched the play in the school yard and at home, and these children were unfettered balls of energy and optimism. Only one of these five were wearing shoes, but none of them seemed to miss them.

Someone once said to "sing like no one is listening and dance like no one's around", and as good as this sounds in theory, I haven't met many who put it into practice. Maddie does it quite often, but the sad reality is that as she gets older she'll do it less and less. And that's sad, isn't it?

A spoke with a friend yesterday who had just written a big cheque to the government in payment of her taxes. Granted, paying alot means you made a lot, and for that she is grateful I am sure. But she was still a little depressed about the whole thing. We actually got back most of what we paid in taxes last year due to our relatively low income, thank you CRA, and as nice as it would be to earn more, we have learned to be pretty happy on our shoestring.

In Kenya, they live without even the shoestring most days. And I can't say they are worse off the lack of it.

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