Those of us born in the years of bounty after World War II knew we had a different outlook than earlier generations of Americans. Blinkered by need, they had come of age with narrower commitments-to the glory of God, the glee of acquisition, or the mean little business of survival. But we took seriously the promise of the Declaration of Independence that the birthright of America was not merely life or liberty, but the pursuit of happiness. Personally, as a child, I always assumed that was the point of growing up. So I'd feel better than I did then.

Which leaves us with the awful doomed inquiry of our middle years, the harpy's voice that whispers in dreams, at sunrise, at those unforeseen, instants of drilling isolation; Is this as happy as I will ever be? Do I have the right to just a little more? Or is there nothing better I should hope for?
-Michael Frain
"The Survivor's Guide,"
September 7, 1995