29 August 2010

Happiness in the World?

I had an interesting discussion with my NFG tonight at dinner. My NPG were arguing with their son about his girlfriend and their dislike of her while I was awkwardly sitting there listening to the whole thing in Romanian as she was sitting there unable to understand anything because she only speaks Russian. Talk about uncomfortable. My NTG later began talking about paradis (Heaven/paradise) and hell (I forget the Romanian word). He was saying in paradise, everything is perfect, everything is beautiful, everything is wonderful, etc. You were in a paradise, you will go to a paradise, but you are not IN a paradise now. Ok, I guess I can work with that. But then he said life is not happy and neither are people. Now, he didn't just mean on a case-to-case basis (I know this because I asked). He meant as a majority, people in this World are not happy. He seemed to blame my age and lack of experience as the reason for why I believe this is not the case. Sure, maybe this is true. But is life really so bad that as you get older you realize life isn't beautiful and there are many reasons not to be happy? Maybe it's my optimistic outlook on life that says otherwise, but I would think there are more people out there that would side with me on this situation... yes? no? Is it possible to be happy when you're "old"? I sure hope so...

4 comments:

  1. I like reading these blogs... always something interesting... Some study somewhere (Time Magazine, perhaps, or some such thing) polled the various nations on "national happiness", and Moldova, believe it or not, came out at the bottom.. Denmark was the happiest place, etc. and USA was somewhere down the line. But MD was the least happy place polled.. Of course, happiness is an indefinite concept, but the article surmised that Moldovans lack a sense of national purpose, identity, and direction that gives one hope and faith in the future. Who knows? maybe it was accurate. If I locate the article, I will try to post it to FB

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  2. I think it was from a book, but I can't remember what the title of the book is.

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  3. Here is a world map of happiness ~

    http://www.asmmag.com/news/world-map-of-happiness

    He sounds like he's had a rough and sad life ~ ask him all about it....

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  4. You should read the book in the PC Library... "Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World" by Eric Weiner. I think Ohad has it right now...

    http://www.ericweinerbooks.com/content/index.asp

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