Happy?
It’s not a hard to ask question. . .
It might be the toughest one to answer
or at least to try and understand
TO ANSWER:
Are you HAPPY?
Johnny Mathis and a host of others have been singing for the 6 weeks IT’S THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR
Charles Dickens wrote:
IT’S THE BEST OF TIMES, IT’S THE WORST OF TIMES
and even though it was from a TALE OF TWO CITIES
and not
THE CHRISTMAS CAROL
it somehow seems that it could well fit,
doesn’t it?
The World is a huge
M A G N I F Y I N G G L A S S
about now. . .
E N L A R G I N G
especially those things that make us the most unhappiest:
Loss
Disappointment
Unmet
Expectation
DeathIllness
Job Security
Money Woes
Health
Family
Distances
or
anything else you might want to place in this:_________________________________________________________________________
HAPPINESS has traditionally been considered an elusive and evanescent thing. To some, even trying to achieve it is an exercise in futility. It has been said that “happiness is as a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but which if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.”
Social scientists have caught the butterfly. After 40 years of research, they attribute happiness to three major sources: genes, events and values. Armed with this knowledge and a few simple rules, we can improve our lives and the lives of those around us. We can even construct a system that fulfills our founders’ promises and empowers all Americans to pursue happiness.
Psychologists and economists have studied happiness for decades. They begin simply enough — by asking people how happy they are.
The richest data available to social scientists is the University of Chicago’s General Social Survey, a survey of Americans conducted since 1972. This widely used resource is considered the scholarly gold standard for understanding social phenomena. The numbers on happiness from the survey are surprisingly consistent. Every other year for four decades, roughly a third of Americans have said they’re “very happy,” and about half report being “pretty happy.” Only about 10 to 15 percent typically say they’re “not too happy.” Psychologists have used sophisticated techniques to verify these responses, and such survey results haveprovedaccurate.
Beneath these averages are some demographic differences. For many years, researchers found that women were happier than men, although recent studies contend that the gap has narrowed or may even have been reversed. Political junkies might be interested to learn that conservative women are particularly blissful: about 40 percent say they are very happy. That makes them slightly happier than conservative men and significantly happier than liberal women. The unhappiest of all are liberal men; only about a fifth consider themselves very happy. . .
Mind you. . .
This story was op-ed was written by
Albert C. Brooks
in the New York Times
DECEMBER 13, 2014
but it could be
TODAY’S HEADLINES
o r
T O M O R R O W ‘ S
So. . .
what makes you happy?
It’s not answering
the opposite of
WHAT MAKES YOU SAD?
Is it the Hap
H A P
HAPPIEST TIME OF THE YEAR ?
Could it be?
Something tells me
you won’t need to consult the
Social Scientists
or house up in their
respective labs to
F I N D O U T
and better. . .
provide that illusive feeling
for another. . .
Psssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssst:
You’re the
R e a s o n
for the
S e a s o n
. . .Share Excessively
(o f t e n)
BE A Producer of Smiles
infest
infect
others with
J O Y
Make it a neverending
incurable
epidemic. . .
E X C E S S I V E L Y
