Inspirational Tuesday: from “The Geography of Bliss” – Eric Weiner
“Not my problem” is not a philosophy. It’s a mental illness. Right up there with pessimism. Other people’s problems are our problems. If your neighbor is laid off, you may feel as if you’ve dodged the bullet, but you haven’t. The bullet hit you as well. You just don’t feel the pain yet. Or as Ruut Veenhoven put it: “The quality of a society is more important than your place in that society.”
In other words, better to be a small fish in a clean pond than a big fish in a polluted lake.
Eric Weiner, “The Geography of Bliss”, Twelve Books, New York, 2008. page 271.
If you’re interested in reading a journalist’s perspective traveling the world in the search of the happiest places, trying to make sense of this alluring and yet, evasive concept (happiness and the places that could provide it), this is a good book to try out. I laughed out loud and was enthralled by it many times. Having asked myself the same questions plenty of times before, especially since I started traveling extensively beginning with my early twenties, I found the book an eye opener on some countries and cultures I have yet to see.
I also took a photo while I was reading it in Sankt Polten last year, accompanied by a very delicious Austrian snack ;)
You can purchase the book here!
