A Reflection on Happiness

Yesterday was spent with two friends, driving to the Malaysian border city of Johor Baru and visiting the Farmers’ (and small entrepreneurs) Market that is held each Saturday morning in a vacant lot adjacent to the Johor Bahru Stadium.  My friends are a long-married Singaporean couple, whom I will call Chao (the man) and Lihua (the woman).  They know of my interest in Singapore and have kindly offered to help teach me.  The question “what can be learned about issues of city/regional level resilience and sustainability from a rigorous examination of Singapore’s post independence history?” is the focus of my current research.  However all three of us are also drawn to a more fundamental question that is the focus of “National Conversations” in Singapore.  The government initiated National Conversations are country-wide discussions about the long-term goals of the society and government’s appropriate role in achieving those goals.

Our discussion began with Chao’s reflections on reasons for his bi-weekly visits to Johor Bahru and to the Farmers Market. Apart from the opportunity to buy a wide selection of  economically priced fresh vegetables, he told us, he enjoys the less stressful pace of life that the vegetable farmer/merchants seem to enjoy.  He introduced me to several with whom he holds regular, sometimes lengthy, conversations on his bi-weekly visits. Occasionally he has visited their homes.   Chao’s appreciation of Johor Bahru’s slower-paced way of life is nuanced, however.  When I asked him if he might like to retire there, he said “no.”  He also values Singapore’s cleanliness, efficiency, safe streets and absence of corruption. But over coffee after leaving the market, we all wondered whether the drive to excel, long working hours and especially the monetization of all aspects of daily life were necessary accompaniments of the qualities that make Singapore a good place to live.

Lihua contributed examples to the discussion from her own experience.  She reflected on spiritually-based support groups in which members care for one another without any thought of monetary gain. She mentioned a caring counselor who, before his untimely death, would provide his services to needy patients at low cost or for free.  She spoke of peacefulness gained from a hectic, demanding daily-routine that walks in Singapore’s beautiful Botanic Gardens provided.  She mentioned the satisfaction she gains from empowering her staff members to work collegially together, maintain a positive attitude and think constructively about their futures.  As in other conversations, she also posed gentle but challenging questions about my research agenda, encouraging me to be more clear and specific about the questions I wished to investigate.

Our conversation lead me to reflect and share thoughts on happiness as a social goal that had crystallized as I rode a rapid transit (MRT) train in the early morning to meet-up with my friends.  As one walks through MRT stations and rides the trains, one encounters many posters with commercial messages.  Most have two qualities in common.  First, the attractive role-models featured are almost all smiling (usually broadly smiling).  The intended message is that they are happy.  Second, the reason for their happiness is some service or product they have purchased – a great dinner served by a smiling chef: an educational course of study; retirement insurance; a profitable stock portfolio; a can of “Pokka” green tea or a “luxurious” travel vacation.  If one walks along Singapore’s commercial strip, Orchard Road, one is further encouraged by joyfully beaming role-models (or sometimes haughty, disdainful ones) to believe that expensive watches and jewellery along with high fashion garments are sources of human happiness.

My professional craft is dynamic systems computer modeling.  Discovering “metrics” – quantitative measures of social life - is important to me.  Thus, as conversation with my friends progressed, a metric popped into mind.  If I were to count the total number of smiling (i.e. happy) role-models appearing on advertising posters that I see on my daily rounds and divide that number  by the total number of all role models the resultant per-centage would be near 100%.  (One rarely sees grumpy role-models promoting products.)  Purchasing the products being promoted is clearly being communicated as the path to happiness that the joyful, smiling role-models are experiencing.

Our conversation progressed and I was lead to reflect on a second metric, the number of smile-wreathed ordinary people (not professional role models) - students, maids, executives, construction workers, taxi drives hawker stand proprietors ad cleanup persons, etc.  – that I see on my daily rounds, divided by the total number of all individuals, both smiling and unsmiling, I encounter. 

I do see some smiles each day.  The security guards in my gated community often smile when we exchange greetings as do the staff members who greet me when I arrive at the office.  Mothers playing with their children in the Botanic Gardens and, sometimes, dog-owners walking their pets, look happy.  Since I say “good morning,” “good afternoon” or “good evening” to most people I encounter, I often receive a smile in return. In these circumstances and exchanges, no jewellery, upscale dinners, expensive jewellery, or luxury vacation is being purveyed.  But if I were to take the total number of smiling individuals I encounter each day and divide it by the total number of all  individuals I encounter, the per-centage would far smaller than that depicted by my advertising-poster metric.

Two messages I draw from these unsystematic observations, which are not intended to single-out Singapore, are clear. (These are not intended to Single-out Singapore or Malaysia of course).   First, there is, indeed, a significant happiness deficit in the world, as contrasted with the idyllic world depicted by the joyously smiling advertising-poster role-models.  Second, the remedy for this deficit is to work harder and to earn more money in order to be able to purchase more of the stuff that is producing the role-models “happiness.” 

Literally billions of dollars are being spent, each year, to convince us these two messages are true.

But is that really the case?

"Hollidazzle's" Sources of Happiness

“Hollidazzle’s” Sources of Happiness

Since I will be living in Singapore for six months, beginning in the New Year, taking time to visit children and grandchildren before this extended sojourn was important to me. The weekend before Christmas, I visted my daughter in Florida. She is part of an embracing community that is an energy-field of artistic creativity. A creative couple who seem remarkably synched with one another, Todd and Carolinda (check them out on Facebook), often play leadership roles. They live in a house that defies description. Every surface, not only horizontal, but vertical is pressed into service as display space for one of their varied artistic creations.

My daughter, Todd and Carolinda, have become a triumvirate that envisioned creating an art center in the small town, Safety Harbor, where T&C live and where Heather owns a home. They raised funds from a Pepsi-sponsored competition on Facebook and matching funds from other sources, T&C donated a building, an architect agreed to provide services at reduced cost, a PR firm donated free marketing services and the Safety Harbor Arts and Music Center (SHAMc) was on its way to becoming a reality.

On Saturday, we all participated in the annual Safety Harbor Parade, along with a multitude of other organizations – resplendently costumed Shriners, Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts, Girl Scouts, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Masons, “Rockettes” (women in 50s dress), the Safety Harbor Alaskan Sled-Dog club (the dogs were obviously uncomfortable on the hot pavement and in the hot, Florida sun) and many, many more. …Including the Hollidazzle team comprising three brightly decorated vehicles, accompanied by a squad of wildly costumed volunteers who handed out brochures and hyped the nightly show and fundraiser at Todd and Carolinda’s to be held every night through December 30^th. I rode in the cab of my daughter’s truck, with her miniature Daschund alternating between her lap and mine, peering out our respective windows to greet parade-goers.

For the show, Todd, Carolinda and volunteers decorated their home and grounds with thousands of lights and artifacts, crafted from recycled materials – especially from aluminum soda cans and bottles. The canopy of tall trees sparkled with additional laser activated projections. There were video displays and a room that changed colors every two or three minutes. For visitors, the experience was a bit like walking through a fairyland maze, with new delights awaiting at every turn.

Holding forth in the “Hollidazzle store,” one stop on the maze, was my task for two evenings, shared with my daughter. Wares for sale included various artistic creations, all crafted from recyclables and SHAMc T shirts. Our companion was a lifesize puppet created by Safety Harbor fifth graders. I manned a display where visitors, for a one-dollar donation, could add a link, along with a personal message on “the world’s longest holographic bracelet chain." My spiel included a promise that the chain would not only be displayed at the soon-to-be-completed art center, but also proposed for enshrinement in the Guinness Book of Records. Holding forth to a plentiful stream of visitors, I was reminded of the days when I helped my first wife, Jan, creator and proprietor of Windy Meadows Pottery, with her craft-fair sales. After promoting the bracelet chain for many hours, on two successive evenings, with nearly two hundred links in place, I felt a bit talked out. But other Hollidazzle volunteers would be staffing the event through the 30^th of December, no doubt producing a chain of awesome proportions.

What is remarkable about this lengthy process – collecting recyclables and creating artwork began in August – is that, apart from a modest architect’s fee to design the Art Center plans, the entire event was a product of volunteer labor. Reflecting on my experience, I was reminded of a podcast interview on “sources of happiness” given by Lord Jonathan Sachs, the United Kingdom’s Chief Rabbi. In my view,” Rabbi Sachs observed, “there are three sources of happiness: (1) doing good for others; (2) having a network of relationships with which one shares a sense of community; and (3) a sense that one’s life makes a difference.” How different, he concluded, are these sources than messages commercial advertisers bombard us with about the sources of happiness. During my two and half days with the Holidazzle volunteers, I was embraced by a community of happy human beings, celebrating the holidays and their contributions to a worthwhile project. The only “costs” were gifts of their time, creativity, teamwork and respectful affection for one another.