Y         U         M        S
A simple SNICKERS Candy Bar
in the supermarket
is worth about $0.50 on sale.          .          .
The same bottle in a bar costs $1 in a vending machine

In an airport gift shop  or hotel it can be worth up to $3 or maybe even more.          .          .
The SNICKERS bar is the same, the only thing that changes is the
P       L       A       C      E  
Each place gives a different value to the same product.
When you feel like you are worth nothing
and everyone around you belittles you,
CHANGE  PLACES
DO  NOT
stay there.          .          .
Have the courage to change places
and go to a place
where you are given
the value you deserve.           .          .
Surround yourself
with people who really appreciate
YOUR WORTH.            .            .
Don’t settle for less!
and ABRACADABRA
You will find
YOUR MORE
will add to Some One Else’s
L    E    S    S.          .          .

Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.          .           .
SNICKER
SNICKER

Wouldn’t we all do it. . .
Book a Trip
Go to a Destination
Make a Pilgrimage
Escape on a Excursion
if we knew that the final landing spot was the
U N I V E R S E
of
HAPPINESS

W E L L . . . Which Values Make You Happy? It Might Depend on Where You Live

Different cultures value different things—and that matters for happiness. . .

 KIRA M. NEWMAN a journalist with The Greater Good Magazine did a little exploring on this HAPPINESS PLACE issue with some interesting findings. . .

When a new psychology study comes out, its findings—gratitude makes people happy! meditating can boost your mood!—are often taken as truth about humanity as a whole. But in recent years, researchers have pointed out that much of psychology research involves participants who are WEIRD: Western, Educated, and from Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic countries. 

Why is that a problem? Because it could be the case that the insights we’re learning about how to live happy, meaningful lives privilege one group’s experiences—and they may not be as useful to people from other cultures and socioeconomic backgrounds.

A new study surveyed people in five regions around the world to see if the factors that influenced their happiness might be different. The discrepancies that the researchers found lend support to concerns that our current knowledge about well-being isn’t as universal as we might think. 

“The implicit claim in previous research that ‘one size fits all’ is probably incorrect,” write Bruce Headey and his colleagues at the DIW Berlin research institute. 

Values and Happiness

The study was based on the World Values Survey, which surveyed hundreds of thousands of people around the world from 1999 to 2014. The researchers decided to focus on five regions: 

• Western countries, including the United States, Britain, Australia, Spain, and others;
• Latin America;
• Asian-Confucian countries: Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan;
• Ex-communist countries: Russia and Eastern Europe; and
• Communist countries: China and Vietnam.

People in each region reported on their values and priorities in life—the things that matter most to them. These included:

• Traditional family values: The importance of family, as well as helping people who live nearby and caring for their needs.
• Friendship and leisure values: The importance of friendship and leisure.
• Materialistic values: Believing it’s important to be rich, successful, and recognized for your achievements. 
• Political values: The importance of politics. 
• Prosocial values: Believing it’s important to do something for the good of society and look after the environment. 
• Religious values: The importance of religion and God. 

The researchers then compared how people rated the importance of these values to how satisfied they felt about their lives. 

The results suggest that some values may be more universally important to well-being than others. In all five regions, people who highly valued family, friendship/leisure, and prosociality tended to be more satisfied with life. But the results for materialism, politics, and religion were more complicated. 

People with stronger political values were more satisfied with life in communist countries, where “good citizens are supposed to be politically active” within the limits laid out by the state, explains Headey. This was also true to a lesser extent in the West. Meanwhile, in ex-communist Russia and Eastern Europe, people who cared more deeply about politics were less happy. This may be due to the “disillusionment with politics” in those countries, after the fall of communism.

People who placed more importance on religion tended to be happier in the West, Latin America, and the Asian-Confucian countries. But they were less satisfied with life if they were living in the communist and ex-communist regions. As the researchers speculate, this may be because communist governments tend to be hostile to religion, and people in ex-communist countries may still be suffering the long-term effects of that. 

Materialism, a value that’s long been assumed to make us unhappy, actually went hand in hand with life satisfaction in Eastern Europe. It was only in the wealthier Western and Asian-Confucian countries where materialists tended to be less satisfied. In Latin America and the Communist countries, being materialistic didn’t seem to matter to life satisfaction. 

Happiness and Conformity

Why might some values be beneficial everywhere, whereas others only seem helpful in certain cultures? 

The researchers suggest that people may be happier when their personal values align with the societal and governmental norms in their country. In other words, some values may benefit us not in and of themselves, but because they give us a sense of belonging and make it easier for us to navigate the world. 

These findings also help make sense of a paradox in happiness research—the fact that some regions (like Latin America) are much happier than their gross domestic product (GDP) would predict, while others (like Eastern Europe) are much less happy. 

Examining the values people hold could help explain these discrepancies. In Eastern Europe, for example, the researchers found that many people rated all the different values as relatively unimportant, a recipe for unhappiness. In Latin America, people’s strong family and religious ties seemed to bring them a great deal of satisfaction. 

Though they aimed to be more inclusive, the researchers didn’t have access to surveys from sub-Saharan Africa or Muslim countries in the Middle East and Asia—which means this picture of well-being is still incomplete. But it does point to a provocative idea: that the path to happiness isn’t the same everywhere, and what works for you may depend on the society and culture in which you live.

Amazing, stuff, huh. . .
To think that HAPPINESS IN A PLACE
instead of a PERSON
but then again, maybe that’s when it get’s really
W E I R D
(Western, Educated, and from Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic countries)
and it gets WEIRDER still
when Your WEIRD
gets my WEIRD
. . .now that’s some kind of
P L A C E
(to be)

Somehow
someway
the more or the less
always has a way of equaling
E N O U G H
It’s never so much the
middle ground
or maybe even the
common ground
recognizing the
Ground Zero
. . .And it’s never where we are not
which makes us all exactly where we need to be
NOW
in the seldom explored 
Land of Enough
Where GPS is not necessary,
Compasses  not needed
And finding a way
Is THE WAY
that leads us all home
Not a destination
Not a street address
Not to a specific place
But an undeniable FEELING
to let you know you’ve never been safer
And more UN-ALONE

N O W
that’s a Ride
that’ll take you down any road you’ve ever been on
and some you’ve yet to imagine
let alone travel. . .

I’ve long believed that
H O M E
is never a Street Address
A P.O. BOX Number
A GPS Destination
H O M E
Is not ever a place
so much as a
F E E L I N G
If COVID19
hasn’t taught us anything else
over these past long months
it’s not so much how
c o n t a g i o u s
it happens to be
but how
I N F E C T I O U S
our love
our sense
our longing
our need
to be
TOGETHER
to be in
COMMUNITY
with each other. . .

What do you call
H O M E
. . .better still:
WHO BRINGS YOU THERE. . . ?

P R O V E
I T
Psssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssst:
It’s time to
P R O D I G A L
U P
and get
H O M E
(And most of all to PROVIDE IT)

P  L  A  C  E

Is it just a

P H I L O S O P H Y

Is it just a

F E E L I N G.          .          .

It was an early Sunday morning

not on the way to Church

and she was laying under some bushes in a vacant parking lot;

He didn’t see her

She did.          .          .

After going through the driver thru of Starbucks,

they went across the street and went through the drive thru of McDonalds

and bought a Big Breakfast with pancakes

and a medium coffee;

when they came to the vacant lot

they found that she was still sleeping, wearing most probably everything she owned, sitting by an empty pizza box and half 2 liter bottle of Shasta Ginger Ale;

He stayed in the car.          .          .

She got out with the McDonalds and went over to her quietly

not really trying to wake her
(what a great way to wake up, huh? McDonalds in the bushes!)

She woke up a little startled but was calmed quickly;

at first she refused the meal and the $20 bill

but was convinced to receive it not so much as a

G     I      F      T

but   as   a

F          A          V          O          R
(to make the humble Giver’s feel better about themselves)

She accepted

If the definition of a musician is:

P L A Y I N G     M U S  I  C

He is ONE;

if it’s one who plays music

F  O  R      F  R  E  E

He’s  the  most  purest  of  Maestro’s;

He played on the Boardwalk as people walked by

TRYING   NOT   TO   LOOK

and absolutely not stopping

and adamantly not GIVING

in his bent up rusted Maxwell House Coffee Can

but when he began a rendition of

AMAZING GRACE

angels wept
(as did I standing not so closely beside him, looking out at the ocean)

He asked for a glass of wine
(was refused it because of it being Sunday)

and got a glass of water with very few ice cubes

that didn’t jingle so well as he swirled them around his glass after a few sips;

It wasn’t that he looked poor

It wasn’t that he looked hungry

It wasn’t that he looked forgotten

It wasn’t that he looked used/abused

so much as he just looked lonely;

The Waiter was called over and the couple asked for his bill to pay as they were leaving to pay their own;

He never knew  W   H   O

and they didn’t stay around to see  HOW he responded.          .          .

Is it just a

P  L  A  C  E

Is it just a

P H I L O S O P H Y

Is it just a

F E E L I N G.          .          .

S       o       m       e       t       i       m       e       s

Church doesn’t have a specific address

Church doesn’t have a specific location

Church doesn’t have a phone number

Church doesn’t have specific hours or times of Service

Church as it’s best is when it ISN’T

and then.         .        .

It’s MUCH MORE!

Why Wear or Share your Faith

when you can help ANOTHER

EXPERIENCE their OWN.          .          .

.                .              .and it’s most sacred
(just by showing up)

We all drive one, you know.       .       .

A     G A R B A G E     T R U C K

looking for a place to

D     U     M     P.         .        .

The Problem.          .          .

It’s usually not some abandoned landfill

but a lonely,

unsuspecting

p e r s o n.             .             .

Have you ever been

G A R B A G E D     T R U C K ‘ E D.     .     .

in a word

no pun intended.        .        .

I T     S T I N K S.          .          .

but  what  is  profoundly  more

r e p u g n a n t l y     s t a n k y

is when you take

YOUR

discarded

no good

foul smelling

disregarded

diseased

haz-met grade

G    A    R    B    A    G    E

to   the   curb.       .       .

p              a              u              s              e.                 .                   .  

and   then   promptly   bring   it   all   back

I          N          S          I          D          E

again

and then again

never really to

be rid of it

and settling for

T        H       A       T

being okie-dokey

n o r m a l.         .          .

Merriam-Webster 

more than clearly defines

G      A       R       B       A       G        E

:  Things that are no longer useful or wanted and that have been thrown out

:  A container where people put things that are being thrown out

:  Something that is worthless, unimportant, or of poor quality

                    or      maybe      even
more      defined

 :  Food Waste

:  A discarded or useless material 

:  T R A S H

:  Inaccurate or useless data

So just what is your 10%

.         .         .what is your 90%.          .          .

Not  W H E R E

W H O

is your dumping ground.          .          .

Let’s make this real easy:

When you take your garbage out–

L E A V E     I T

A  DUMP

is not a PERSON

but a PLACE.          .           .

(repeat as often as needed)

Is  there

 a

P           L           A           C           E

A

S      P     O     T

that makes it feel like a

h     o     l     i     d     a     y

even when.     .     .

especially when it actually

i      s     n   ‘   t.     .     .     ?

Maybe it’s where

you are known.     .     .

maybe it’s where

you are comfortable.     .     .

maybe it’s where

you are misunderstood.     .     .

maybe it’s where

you are embarrassed.     .     .

maybe it’s where

you are feared.     .     .

maybe it’s where

you are seemingly out of place.     .     .

maybe it’s where

you  are .       .        .

There’s a place

not so much where people meet you.    .     .

b u t    j u s t    a    p e r s o n

who accepts you

with all of your

flaws

misfortunes

disformaties

and sour notes

and  at

t h a t     m o m e n t

makes a mere place

H       O       M       E

D O

t      h      a      t

often

Go ahead.     .     .

Open your Heart to Everyone

and watch another’s life

LIGHT   UP

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