I often hitch-hiked across the USA in the 70s. Sometimes for pleasure. Sometimes out of necessity. Pleasure and necessity combined forces in August 1972. A fellow BC student Neil Nepola was visiting his girlfriend, Vickie, in Tulsa. His BMW was our ride and I thumbed through the Midwest spurred by the dreams of driving through the deserts in a fast car. These diamonds turned to dust, when a roller coaster in Oklahoma City diverted Neil's attention. His BMW rear-ended a Caddie. No contest and I arrived in Oklahoma to discover we were on foot.
Tulsa is half-way across the continent. We drank ourselves senseless in BYOB bars before voting to keep on trucking. We were 20. We had long hair. We read ON THE ROAD. Good-bye Tulsa, Vickie, and her younger sister, Marilyn. Funny I can remember her name, but not my wife's birthday.More...
We reached the coast at the end of Route 66. Neil's cousin was staying in Seal Beach. We smoked pot, bodysurfed, and drank at a bar next to the Long Beach Channel. A week flashed fast in a paralytic ganga haze. His cousin's name is lost in that miasma.
Two weeks remained until the resumption of BC's fall semester. I wanted to see my friend, Wayne Shepard in Pomana. It was far from the coast. He was living with his biker brother. They took us to DisneyWorld. We smoke weed in IT'S A SMALL WORLD. I could have been happier, then again Disneyworld prides itself on being the "the happiest place on earth."
This distinction has changed locations many times since 1972.
Goa, Koh Phi Phi, Bali, Palm Beach, Paris, Bar Harbor.
Pattaya the day my daughter was born.
But all places become common the first day you buy a roll of toilet paper, because the daily grind wears down the degree of happiness and you ask yourself, "Who is really happy?'
Denmark is the answer according to an elaborate study by a divergent group of government agencies around the world.
The BBC says the following about the Danes
The Danes like to hang around with friends and family. They even have a name for these kind of gatherings, calling these intimate and spontaneous get-togethers 'hygge' (pronounced "hoogey").
Hanging out with other Danes just may be their happiness secret. Ninety-two percent of Danes belong to some kind of social club, dancing, singing, even practicing laughing with other Danes. Get a few people together who enjoy model train building, for example, and the government will pay for it. In Denmark, even friendship is subsidized and Denmark is what is called a "post consumerist" society. People have nice things, but shopping and consuming is not a top priority. Even the advertising is often understated. Along with less emphasis on "stuff," and a strong social fabric, Danes also display an amazing level of trust in each other, and their government. A University of Cambridge happiness study found that both kinds of trust were higher in happier places.
In Denmark, you can see trust in action all around you. Vegetable stands run on the honor system, mothers leave babies unattended in strollers outside cafés, and most bicycles are left unlocked. And perhaps the bicycle is the best symbol of Danish happiness. Danes can all afford cars, but they choose bikes.
Denmark is a place where stoic locals wear sensible shoes and snack on herring sandwiches. Sure, they produce the occasional supermodel, but its most famous countryman may be the late entertainer Victor Borge.
Could the Danes really be the happiest people in the world? When ABC News anchor Bill Weir traveled there to find out, he asked random Danes to rate themselves in terms of happiness, on a scale of one to 10. Many people rated themselves at least an eight, and there were several nines and 10s. Finally, one grouchy Dane came along who said she didn't believe Danes were so happy. But then she quickly conceded that she herself felt rather content with her life, and said Danes in general had very little to complain about. Danes do have one potential complaint: high taxes. The happiest people in the world pay some of the highest taxes in the world -- between 50 percent and 70 percent of their incomes. In exchange, the government covers all health care and education, and spends more on children and the elderly than any country in the world per capita. With just 5.5 million people, the system is efficient, and people feel "tryghed" -- the Danish word for "tucked in" -- like a snug child.
I'm sure Americans would be astounded by this finding.
Maybe not after 8 years of the fear regime of George W Bush.
But even I have to recognize that GW is not behind all the evil in the world.
The main source of happiness comes from a feeling of belonging and in western society cars separate us from those we love, because Marshall McLuhan says forget about carpooling. The only time western man is truly alone is when he's in his car. Cell phones are supposed to bring us closer, except no one answers them. Every man is not so much an island as a desert of feeling.
Drive in the suburbs.
The landscape of emptiness.
Not a restaurant open. Not a bar where 'everyone knows your name'.
Only the mall where you're forced to consume everything you don't really need.
Friends, family, the pursuit of happiness, which is why I love Thailand.
Not for the sex. Not for the weather. But for the warmth of drinking eating and talking with your friends and Thais only score 43rd on the list.
America 23rd.
Both countries could do better.
Be happy. Mi sabaii.
The other choices are too gray to consider viable alternatives.
Happiness is more than a warm blanket - Snoopy
And Victor Borge was funny.
For a related article click on this URL
http://www.mangozeen.com/bangkok-happiness-down.htm
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