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Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Sleepy, Happy Hawaii

Just days after Hawaii was cited for being home to the sleepiest --or most sleep-deprived --people in the country, and months after Hawaii was once again determined to be the happiest state to live in (though Bhutan holds the global claim), as well as often the healthiest, we find the happiest man in the nation lives in Manoa, the neighborhood adjacent to the University of Hawaii.

A practicing Jew named Wong, with a nice house in one of Hawaii's nicest neighborhoods, he was selected by the following statistical criteria (by The New York Times, via Gallup):
"[H]e's a tall, Asian-American, observant Jew who is at least 65 and married, has children, lives in Hawaii, runs his own business and has a household income of more than $120,000 a year."
Introducing Alvin "Happy" Wong:


It's not clear to me that Mr. Wong knew he was the happiest man in America before he was contacted by the pollsters.

In any case, he has interesting competition. The happiest man in the world is thought to be Matthieu Ricard, Buddhist monk, French translator and buddy to the Dalai Lama. He was scientifically proven to be happiest in clinical tests by the University of Wisconsin! He has some things to say about happiness too. It may be interesting to consider the traits Mr. Wong and the monk have in common. On the surface, it seems not too many, although both have a spiritual grounding.

That must be it.

2 comments:

sybil law said...

Spiritual grounding, for sure. It definitely grounds me, and also gives me a foundation to handle stresses.
Well, that's my opinion, anyway.

baroness radon said...

If it works, opinion doesn't matter.