Happiness Quotients

I think those people who do research on what brings humans lasting happiness are onto something when they reveal that people get a longer-lasting positive vibe from experiences than they do from things. The benefits of travel are many, and anyone who’s done much knows it’s not easy to put into words, but you are glad to have had the experiences and draw on them for a long time as food for thought. There are the obvious considerations like seeing “stuff” that is different from your culture’s “stuff”, “stuff” being landscape, edifices, , food, clothing, and especially how the people of the culture interact.  I think one of the highest on the list is seeing things you simply don’t see in any books, on any website.  Things like a country’s hospitals, or schools, or governmental offices.  These local institutions reveal a lot about the values of a country, and how they operate. 

Coming to this part of the country (the extreme Northeast) wasn’t always easy or fun (Cameroon-level

awful roads when traveling, no internet connection, phone connection, hot water from time to time), but it was fascinating to learn about a whole other India I had no idea existed. Being in the actual environment adds so much to your understanding of the place, from the sensorial to the cognitive.  Had I not physically been in the mileau, I would have a much less complete picture of it.  Actually, in this case, I had no idea that the people looked more like Laotian or Cambodian than Indian, that their food, clothing, and religions were different, so coming here was a treat in most respects.  The people were kind and the scenery outstanding.

We saw people from a few of the tribes that are represented in the Northeast, and didn’t recognize them as Indian.  Our host laughingly said they referred to themselves as “Indian by accident.”  Her son was quick to say he didn’t like that phrase, and revealed the next generation’s discontent with being thoroughly dismissed by the rest of the country. He went on to explain the current protests and unrest because of this dismissive attitude. 

Sometimes universals are revealed again and again.  As we talked about different areas of the city, our host said the immigrants from Bangladesh had come into their area of the city and made it unclean, throwing trash and disregarding any maintenance to property.  Has any country ever warmly embraced their immigrants?  It made me reflect that former Governor Bob Ray of Iowa was quite a humanitarian (and risk taker) to be one of only 2 or 3 governors who would agree to accept the first wave of Vietnamese refugees in the late 70s.