I recently finished reading a memoir of NPR correspondent Eric Weiner which documents his trip around the world searching for happiness. After looking up the countries with the highest percentage of happy residents, Weiner trotted around the globe visiting many of them and trying to figure out what makes each country’s residents so darn happy. His story is funny in most places, thought provoking in many, and completely entertaining. Whether he is learning how to smile like a Thai or eat rotten shark meat in Iceland, Weiner is not short of witty commentary and insight into one of the greatest human motivations: the pursuit of happiness.
Weiner puts it this way: “With our words, we subconsciously conflate geography and happiness. We speak of searching for happiness, of finding contentment, as if these were locations in an atlas, actual places that we could visit if only we had the proper map and the right navigational skills. Anyone who has taken a vacation to, say, some Caribbean island and had flash through their mind the uninvited though “I could be happy here,” knows what I mean.”
You might want to give this book a read. As a traveler, it leaves me excited about the diversity and joy around the world. As a Christian, I am satisfied to know the destination where happiness really does dwell.
