An unconventional mix of circumstances makes for the happiest country in the world. John Carlin's article begins with what would have otherwise been a catastrophic catalog of woes except that it is not:
Highest birth rate in Europe + highest divorce rate + highest percentage of women working outside the home = the best country in the world in which to live. There has to be something wrong with this equation. Put those three factors together - loads of children, broken homes, absent mothers - and what you have, surely, is a recipe for misery and social chaos.
Research shows that you don't have to live in a tropical paradise to be happy and money can't necessarily buy it. Even if you don't live in a particularly happy country, you can pursue happiness on your own - it is "understandable, obtainable and teachable" requiring 15 hours and equaling one 1 credit.
John Carlin concludes his essay on Iceland with words of wisdom for the rest of us :
Partly by dint of travel, partly by accident, Iceland, we agreed, was a melting pot that had contrived to combine humanity's better qualities, offering a lesson for the rest of the world on how to live sensibly and cheerfully, free from cant and prejudice and taboo.
crossings as in traversals, contradictions, counterpoints of the heart thought often not..
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