This one from Canadian author and all-around cheery guy Robertson Davies.

Overall, I have been a relatively happy person in life. I know when I have it good. I think part of it is all the jobs and life situations where I have been around people whose lives were totally fucking nightmares. All my difficult times were really self-induced, experimental, and transcending in nature, and I always had an escape route available. Many don't have that option. I was born into the post WW2 Boomer generation during the peak of the USA as an empire, when optimism was high, and options plentiful. 20 years of war and economic depression were over with, and people were ready to rock. Add to that being white, middle class, and raised in coastal California in the 60's, and I hit the trifecta in life. My formative years were quite literally almost a beach party flick that morphed into 'Easy Rider'. 

Both my mother and grandmother would be considered extremely bi-polar these days. Their mood swings were a wonder to behold. My grandmother would go from a depressed little old lady to a giggling, happy teenage girl instantly. It was even spooky to see this as a child. I knew something wasn't quite right. Back then they just called it being 'moody', before it progressed to Hendrix's 'manic depressive', and finally 'bi-polar'. Luckily it would appear I inherited the even keeled genetics of my father's side of the family, sturdy Anglo Saxon, mid-western, sober farmer stock. I never really get too excited about anything. The plus side of that equation is I don't get too down about anything either. I take a pretty causal attitude about life to heart. I try to have something I look forward to doing everytime I wake up in the morning. Usually that involves creating something just for the act of creating something. I have a theory that passive entertainment and unecessary consumption leads to much of our depression today. Age helps with my mental disposition too. Now I truly don't give a fuck, whereas before I just said it a lot, but still did. Life is good.