That time of the year
I agree, (We are agreeing a lot in this blog. Maybe I should start picking a fight with you just to make this more interesting to read?) happiness, like many other things have a lot to do with semantics. I remember earlier this year (I think), there was a report stating Finland as the happiest country in the world. It made me chuckle. That can’t be right, can it? I mean, for one, our suicide statistics have always been high (although they are on the decline, which is great). Or look at the amount of people on antidepressants, it is almost one in every 10 Finns. That is insane!
This all made me think about what the term happiness means in the context of this research. I think what they call happiness I would call contentedness. We top a lot of lists in the world with low corruption, stable governance, clean air, high trust etc. That means we’re all more or less ok (I know, I know, there are people suffering here too, but allow me this generalization). We’re ok. I guess that can qualify as a type of happiness?
Or is it even so, that depression (referring to the suicide stats and antidepressants) is something that comes with privilege? Are we so well off we can afford to feel the weight of the world on our shoulders?
Who knows. All I know is that I do not require an academic definition of what happiness is to know that I’m happy. Happy despite all and happy thanks to all.
Changing topic. It’s almost Christmas. I’m not a big Christmas person. I’ve got zero Christmas decorations in my home. I haven’t bought a single gift. Despite that I’m not totally unaffected by this holiday. There is something really interesting about it. If you put aside all the unnecessary stress and fuss that some people engage in because of the holidays, it fills me with a sense of collectiveness. When so many people relax from their everyday work life the energy changes. I can’t really put words to it, but I can feel it. It’s kind of like for once we all look up at the same time and acknowledge everything around us.
It’s interesting how rituals like Christmas (or any other holiday that is common in your specific context) add coherence to our society. Maybe it is just the collective agreement it entails that causes it.
In the days to come I am going to visit both my grandmothers. I will write them both letters reflecting on what they have meant for me in my life. I don’t see them often and I don’t want them to think I don’t care about them.
As next post is yours, and at the very end of the year, I want to ask you, looking back at this year, what are you grateful for?
For me this year has brought a lot of changes. I changed cities and I’m on my third job this year. Change almost always involves some…not pain, but at least friction. I’m grateful for all the changes. Maybe I haven’t arrived yet, but at least I’ve taken steps in different directions. To me, that is better than standing still.
