There's an interesting story I read on the Internet about a group of alumni, who had been very successful in their chosen careers, and had gotten together to visit their old university professor. The conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life.

The professor went to the kitchen, brewed a pot of coffee, and returned with coffee and an assortment of cups - porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain-looking, some expensive, and some exquisite - telling them to help themselves to the coffee.

After all the students had chosen a cup of coffee, the professor said: "If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. Be assured that the cup itself adds no quality to the coffee. In most cases, it's just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the best cups and and then began eyeing each other's cups.

"Now consider this: Life is the coffee. The jobs, houses, cars, things, money and position in society are the cups. They are just used to hold and contain life. The type of cup we have does not define nor change the quality of life we live. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee."

As I'm writing this, I'm thinking of the untimely death of Anna Nicole Smith. This is not meant to be a judgment, but it appears that she was more concerned about the cup than the coffee and was never really able to find the love and peace that she so much desired. It makes me sad because she could have had it all.

For life to be meaningful, we need to concentrate on the coffee, not the cup.

Happiness does not translate into utopia - it means we have decided to enjoy the coffee regardless of the cup in which it is served, and when we do that we can generally find a measure of the love and peace that we desire.