AUTHOR ENLIGHTENS STUDENTS ON HIS GLOBAL SEARCH FOR HAPPINESS
The New Paltz Oracle
Thursday, November 12, 2009
By Jenn Von Willer
Geography of Bliss, a book by Eric Weiner was discussed on Thursday night in the CSB auditorium. The discussion caused spontaneous thought bubbles to form within my brain for over an hour. It made me ask myself over and over if what I comprehended as personal happiness was truly accurate.
“There are two things you should know about me. One, I love, I really love to travel, and two, I’m a grump,” Eric Weiner said as he discussed his new best-selling book, The Geography of Bliss: One Grump’s Search for the Happiest Places in the World. The book, which has been translated into 14 languages was published by Twelve, a company that only publishes 12 books per year. Twelve graciously paid for Eric Weiner’s insightful quest for both the happiest and unhappiest places in the world. Eric Weiner has a longtime experience as a journalist and worked as a foreign correspondent for NPR, but was denied any money from NPR when he fi rst pitched his book idea to them.
He also lived and reported in developing countries, like Afghanistan and India. Besides his love for travel, Weiner embraces geography and topography, claiming that geography has gotten a “bum wrap” over the years because “prophets of placeless lands,” those considered to live in amidst Silicon Valley, try to convince others that we’re already aware of what geography is or what the term entails, since “we’re all interconnected with Wi-Fi and cell phones, and I think that’s wrong.”
He informed the audience that ever since he was 5-years-old, he’s been in motion. Weiner unraveled the true story about how he and his friend, Drew, ran away from home but after walking a few miles away from his home, the Baltimore County Police brought them back home. It still couldn’t deter Eric Weiner’s aspirations of world travel,
which ultimately led him into journalism. His voice reached high velocities across the auditorium, and he was
full of so much wit and charm. But his grump side soon seeped through.
“The truth is, I’m not a grump, I’m close to being a mountain tent. Some people question how I can be unhappy since I’m a bestselling author, [worked for] NPR, I’m good looking with a full thick head of hair, but I keep forgetting that I’m not on radio and I can’t keep lying,” said Weiner.
Even throughout much success as a journalist, Weiner was well-aware of his “white noise of unhappiness” dating back to his birth in 1963, the same year Harvey Ball invented the “burning, nauseating yellow” Smiley Face. He said, “he never trademarked or copyrighted it, so he may have died happy, but not wealthy.”
His personal unhappiness wasn’t pure cynicism nor was it directly caused
by his time spent reporting from countries at war, like Iraq, Iran and Sudan, although he admitted he’s somewhat happier after completing his book. As a journalist, he was stuck spending a lot of time with unhappy people and only reported selective news and sometimes not reporting the whole story. Then, Weiner had an epiphany, or what he called “a light bulb moment, asking ‘Eric, what are you doing?’”
He needed facts to write Geography of Bliss Weiner explained. He couldn’t just assume that places with warm, tropical beaches with umbrellas in drinks and a swim up bar were the happiest places in the world. When interviewing people, he simply asked “On a scale from one to 10, with one being miserable and ten being Oprah levels of happy, Oprah’s happy, right? How happy are you?”
He quoted several historians and philosophers regarding happiness, including Aristotle and Henry Miller and dwelled on how Americans perceive happiness with wealth or that the happiest places in the world must be someplace warm, like the Bahamas. Weiner continuously repeated that his theory on happiness is based on absolutely nothing, except what he’s observed from interviews with people around the world.
In Geography of Bliss, his first trip was to meet Dr. Ruut Veenhoven, the head of The World Database of Happiness located in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Before Dr. Veenhoven could reveal the happiest places, he explained that the least happy places were categorized into two groups. The first group of least happy places Weiner discussed is sub-Saharan Africa, for what he said to be “obvious reasons.” He repeatedly disputed the statistic that the poorest of the poor are not the happiest of people because of living in impoverished lands.
He also disputed that Thailand, “the land of smiles,” is not all what it seemed. He also advised the audience that staying in high-priced, glitzy fi ve-star hotels only insulate and isolate one discovering the country.
Weiner considered Russia and former Soviet states, adding that he’s not being insincere, but former Soviet Union countries such as Ukraine and Belarus are a part of the unhappy mix. Latin America was considered “surprisingly happier” due to the amount of close-knit families, even if there was “less income or NARC officers.” Eastern Asian countries such as Japan and China were labeled not as happy by Weiner. He mentioned that these some of these countries economies are booming, however, the price of happiness didn’t matter because the people of these countries believe in relational happiness, or in achieving happiness by connecting with those around you instead of personal happiness.
Lastly, Eric Weiner insisted that money does not define happiness, but an increase in income can help boost your happiest. The country’s climate also doesn’t matter, noting that Dr. Veenhoven encouraged him to visit Iceland and Denmark, despite their cold climates. He admitted that one factor in regards to Iceland’s happiness might exist because Icelanders “drink like fish,” but only on the weekends.
According to Weiner, he was told that there are so many unknown forces of creativity coursing through Iceland with musicians and artists (Björk, for example). When he met an Icelandic music producer named Lars, Weiner went straight for the anecdotes when Lars told him that Iceland embraces failure, while America embraces failure only when there’s a success story.
Another country, less cold, but extremely isolated is Bhutan. In Bhutan, Weiner met fellow friend and confidant, Karma Aura, a Bhutanese villager and Buddhist who advised him to contemplate death everyday for at least five minutes. Weiner bargained with Aura, telling his audience that he thinks about death for two-and-a-half minutes instead.
Weiner used best-selling author, John Grisham, as an example since Grisham received 17 rejected manuscripts before
he was finally published. Overall, the mood among the audience didn’t drop to abysmal lows; there was enough satire and cultural innuendos to create boisterous roars of laughter across the room.
On a final note, Iceland is now bankrupt, but Weiner shared a personal e-mail from an acquaintance that expressed that there was anxiety over the economic crisis but the community remains closer than ever simply by talking to every villager or inquiring about one’s day.
This article can be found on page 3B in Features of The New Paltz Oracle Volume 81, Issue IX.
Jenn Von Willer 