Well, times are certainly good, though there’s rarely too much of a good thing. “We’re enjoying one of the best economies of our lifetime,” observes columnist David Brooks in The New York Times.

And yet, he asks, are we happy? A new Gallup poll suggests not. Gallup’s researchers asked 160,000 adults about their financial security, social relationships, sense of purpose and something called “connectedness to community,” and Gallup says, the year 2017 was judged the worst year for well-being since this category was added to their polling a decade ago.

Noah Smith of Bloomberg News thinks it’s the result of the collision of the well-educated young and harsh reality.

“They graduated from college, saddled with debt, and naturally expected the world to embrace them as their parents and schools had done. Instead, many entered into the gig economy, where a lot of work is temporary and insecure.”

What a lot of people are discovering is what their parents, and certainly their grandparents, discovered a long time ago.

There’s reality fatigue abroad in the land, and why wouldn’t there be? Every bump and bruise in life is presented as a crisis, something to blame on someone else and begging for a government solution.

Once upon a time there was the spiritual sustenance of religious faith, the treasures of friendship and connections to neighbors, the comforts of marriage and devotion and deference of men and women to each other, to count on in times good and bad.

A childhood rhyme had advice we can use today in the midst of abundance: “As you ramble on through life, brother, whatever be your goal: keep your eye upon the doughnut, and not upon the hole.” Simple but sage.