I was sitting in a Tim Horton’s (A donut shop started in Canada) doing some paper work. I was not alone. Lots of people were drinking coffee, eating donuts, and other foods. Everyone was overweight. Two teenagers came in holding hands. They were cute and evidently in love. Both were fit and trim. This was not from working out necessarily as much as simply being teenagers.

They ordered: Ice cream for her and donuts for him.

I looked at this young couple as they laughed and ate their 1500 calorie snacks. I looked around at all the overweight people eating their snacks. It struck me as I was looking around that high school education had failed these two young people. If the English Lit teachers were doing their jobs, and if the kids were paying attention, they would know what foreshadowing is and they would see it written on the waist of every person sitting there.

These bellies were saying, “Eat your ice cream and donuts. Enjoy them. It is only a matter of time before you look like us.”

The same would be true of movie stars and pop culture icons. Look at them. Sure, they have the big house, nice cars, attractive boyfriends or girlfriends, and travel. They have everything many of us think are the things that make us happy and content. If that were true, would a pop star be drinking and racing and then getting arrested? Would these stars be getting arrested for drug possession? Would these pop stars be doing half the things they are doing if they were happy and content? Maybe, but probably not.

This is foreshadowing. Look at their lives. If the things we think would make us happy are the things they have in triplicate, why are they seemingly so miserable?

Look, maybe I’m totally off on this. Certainly, not all movie stars, or other wealthy folks are drunks or druggies. I just think that the examples that fill the pages of magazine and newspapers should give us a moment to think about what makes us happy.

And I know that the last thing those young kids were thinking is that the fat people all around them could be them someday. That should give us a moment of reflection, too.