Geography of Bliss

I heard an interesting interview with the author of a new book with the title, "The Geography of Bliss," (Eric Weiner). The idea was he travelled all over the world trying to quantify where the happiest people reside in terms of their own evaluation of whether they were happy or not. Iceland reported the best stats and was followed by the Dutch and the Swiss. Of course the obvious next step is to attempt a measurement of one's own sense of happiness. For a moody guy, I always felt that I was "happy enough" - usually not too high or too low but, you know, happy enough. My relocation to Key West, much more than a geographical change for sure, has probably doubled my sense of how happy I am. A lot goes into that reassessment. I definitely miss my friends, routines, and old haunts. I miss seeing Ben on a regular basis, but with phone calls, emails, and this blog I've basically stayed in contact with folks. I actually have a lot more to talk about with everybody than I did, if only because there have been new experiences and discoveries. I didn't need to hear this interview to know that but it's reassuring to hear an author use a 1-10 scale to rate happiness. Anyhow, the next step is to consider making the move to Key West a permanent one. So far, thinking about it makes me happy!