I was fortunate enough to be raised on “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.” It was a great primer for the meaning of the holidays and as a poor Catholic kid who had more siblings than toys, it made sense to me.
So now, in the shadow of the Great Recession, I know that just because the Grinch stole the presents, we’ll all be OK because we generally have each other and, oh yeah, a song or two.
There is one thing of which there has been great abundance in the last year: great stories, good, bad and indifferent. After all, multifamily is a news machine.
I keep thinking of one story we ran about Americans and happiness. Researchers found that long-term, the happiness of “stuff” is short-lived and found generally unfulfilling for most Americans.
What happens is that we buy the gizmo we always wanted and rapidly grow bored with it. Plain and simple, researchers found that stuff did not make people happy.
On the other hand, life’s experiences, travel, time with friends and family, not only brought joy at the point of occurrence, but grew the individual’s happiness each time it was recounted.
And thus, according to my own personal survey of one, I concur. It is not the stuff that I remember about the last year. It is the people and the experiences that make me smile with each memory.
It is the fabric of life upon which we report here at the magazine. It’s a great tale and a fantastic adventure to be part of this industry called multihousing.
Happy Chanukah. Merry Christmas.
