Happiness vs. the Sublime

My husband Colin and I like to watch the Colbert Report every once in a while. Partly, what I think is funny is knowing what Stephen Colbert is like in real life, as a thoughtful dad, a liberal, and a practicing (though critical) Roman Catholic. You may want to listen to Terry Gross' great interview with him. I like to watch the show and see when his real personality becomes visible underneath his arch-conservative character on the show.

So a few weeks ago Colbert interviews Daniel Gilbert, who wrote a book called Stumbling on Happiness. In that interview, Gilbert reports the statistic that people who have children report they are slightly less happy than people without. Colin and I have been talking about starting a family "off in the distance," not in the next few years. We never talked about it at the time, but last night over dinner, it turns out this statistic really stuck in both our minds for a few weeks.

What happened after Gilbert told Colbert this statistic was interesting, and I think it's why I remembered the episode. Without taking a second to think, Colbert-- still in character, but saying what I imagine the real Stephen might say-- says "but are you confusing happiness with the sublime? Because I have found having children is sublime, its a feeling superior to happiness." There experiences in life that are so beautiful and meaningful, that being happy isn't the most important thing.

You can imagine recalling this made for interesting dinner conversation last night.