Don't Worry, Be Happy...In Holland?

Last Sunday I gave a talk at a church in Grand Rapids. My wife was in the congregation. She told me later that she was trying to get my attention. She was smiling at me, in hopes of getting me to smile. I guess I wasn’t smiling enough. I told her I wasn’t thinking about smiling, I was thinking about what I was saying. But she has a point: I should smile more when I speak. (:-)

You’d think I would smile more, because I’ve lived in Holland now for a year and a half and Holland is said to be the second happiest city in America. You’ve no doubt heard about this. Holland was just behind Boulder, Colorado and just ahead of Honolulu, Hawaii in a Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index. They scored each city on health and well-being, what they called happiness. The results are based on more than 350,000 telephone surveys across the country. I mean no disrespect, but I know several people who got a chuckle out of Holland being a happier place than Honolulu. Holland? A happier place than Honolulu? Huh?

After the story about Holland came out, I saw a bumper sticker on a car outside an area restaurant. It said, “I wish Hillary Clinton had married O.J.” Yikes! Well, that’s not a very a happy thought. Hopefully, that’s not a true reflection of Holland.

I Googled “Holland Happy” the other day and it came back, inviting me to “Holland Happy Hour” in May. I’m thinking: During Tulip Time? Really? “Enjoy drinks and food with us,” the website said. In Holland? Then I noticed it was talking about Holland the country. Of course, in Holland, Michigan within the last year or so voters did approve the sale of beer and wine on Sundays. Hey, I’ll bet that made many people happy.

Perhaps some people were surprised that Holland is considered a happy place, because of the history of Dutch immigrants coming to America, to places like Holland. Many people came to America from Europe a couple hundred years ago, to escape religious restrictions, seeking spiritual freedom. In contrast, many Dutch people came to America from Europe a couple hundred years ago, for just the opposite reason: they were escaping spiritual freedom, seeking religious restrictions. Now that may be a little exaggerated, but not much. Europe was too religiously loosey goosey for them, and too liberal in other ways also. (Politically. Sexually.)

You’ve probably heard the old story about Holland from many years ago. A Catholic guy moves to town. One Sunday afternoon, the Catholic guy is out mowing his lawn. His Dutch Reformed neighbor comes over and asks him not to do that because, “We don’t work on Sunday.” The Catholic guy says, “Gee, I’m sorry, I didn’t know.” He stops mowing his lawn. That Friday, the Dutch Reformed guy is out grilling hamburgers. His Catholic neighbor comes over and asks him not to do that because, “We don’t eat meat on Friday.” Religious wars have probably been started over less. I would suggest that story describes how Holland used to be, not how it is today (although my wife doesn’t want me to mow our lawn on Sunday; she’s afraid our neighbors won’t like it).

I was listening to NPR the other day. The Diane Rehm show. I caught it in the middle. A professor was talking about the choices we make. She said people choose Coca-Cola because it makes them happy. Scientists have proven this. They’ve hooked people up to MRI machines and found that Coke causes the happy part of people’s brains to light up. She said it’s due to marketing. Maybe you remember the happy ad from years ago, where people are singing on a hillside, “I’d like to buy the world a Coke.” Many, many years ago, Coke had an ad campaign that portrayed Santa Claus the way many of us think of old St. Nick today, as a jolly old fat man in a red suit, the same color red as a can of Coke. What makes you happy? Coke? What do we mean by happiness? Is it walking around all day with a goofy grin on our face?

Many years ago, people got a kick out of the Bobby McFerrin song, “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.” Bobby McFerrin sang, “Here’s a little song I wrote, you might want to sing it note for note, don’t worry, be happy. In every life we have some trouble, but when you worry you make it double. Don’t worry, be happy. Don’t worry, be happy now.” How do we go about not worrying and being happy?

Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence. “We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” What Jefferson meant by “Happiness,” what philosophers mean by happiness, isn’t what many of us mean by happiness. It isn’t about walking around in a state of bliss. It’s about a life well lived. But what’s a life well lived?

Buddhism teaches that we all want to avoid suffering and we all want to achieve happiness. I think what Buddhism is talking about, avoiding suffering and achieving happiness, is getting to the point of having peace of mind, the peace that passes understanding, inner peace. In other words, don’t get bogged down in petty problems.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, a Unitarian, said, “Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.” I think Ralph Waldo Emerson is talking about having peace of mind, the peace that passes understanding, inner peace.

In the Christian New Testament, in Philippians, we read, “Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” It seems to me if we, “think about these things” – whatever is true, honorable, just, pure, pleasing, commendable, any excellence, anything worthy of praise - we’ll be on our way to having peace of mind, the peace that passes understanding, inner peace. In a word, happiness.

I have to admit, I never in a million years thought I’d live in Holland. I thought of Holland as a small town, suspended in time, in about 1950. But what I’ve come to know about Holland in a year-and-a-half of living here, is that Holland is a small town, sure, but one that is alive with activity, with many friendly people, who care about others, including the less fortunate. A serene, peaceful place. One might even call it happy.

If you’re wondering what you can do in Holland to be happy, and maybe even achieve inner peace, might I make a few suggestions? How about a trip to the Holland Area Arts Council, the Holland Museum or Holland’s soon-to-be-open African American Museum? (Yes, Holland is going to have an African American museum.) For outdoor lovers, how about walking on the beach, seeing a sunset over Lake Michigan or enjoying one of the city’s many parks? For food lovers, how about a hash brown omelet at the Windmill Restaurant, an ice cream cone at Kilwin’s or a pizza with everything but (anchovies) at Fricano’s? (For those who are seeking inner peace and inner pizza.)

When the story about Holland being a happy place came out, ABC News arrived in town, with a great deal of skepticism. Basically, they couldn’t believe that people in Holland are happy. They talked about the city's double-digit unemployment rate. They showed somebody stumbling in a snowstorm. But the ABC news story said that there are more than 170 churches here and that many people in Holland care a great deal about their loved ones. They concluded that maybe those two things, faith and family, make Holland a happy place to live. And those are the kinds of things – faith and family - that make even a serious-looking minister smile. (;-)