Little tykes are playing on the slides and swing sets at Kelly Park or Seven Gables. Older youth are playing soccer or baseball at Atten Park or some such place. Mom and dad, grandma and grandpa cheer them on. The Prairie Path, kind of a main street of Wheaton in the summer, is filled with walkers, joggers and bicycle riders, and nearly everyone nods hello as they pass. Life seems good here in Wheaton as you go around the city.
Lawns are weed-free.
And except for mine, cars are clean and shiny. People are happy. In middle-class suburbia here in America life offers more opportunities for happiness for more people than probably any other time or place in the history of the world. We all don't have a Lexus or Mercedes or BMW, but even for those of us with Honda Civics or Ford Escorts life is good. At least it seems to be, or ought to be.