When I was in college, I took an Anthropology course. The professor spoke about how different cultures have words for the things that they need; an example of this was the many words for snow that those who lived in very Northern climates traditionally had and the number of words for cars in the U.S. I thought about this as I began to read through The Happiness Passport. The connections between words and culture are every where in this lovely book.
The Happiness Passport is organized into sections. They include chapters on the following:
Home and Environment
Community and Relationships
Joy and Spirituality
Balance and Calm
As I began to read, I was bookmarking and underlining so I could share with you. I was starting to have no un-bookmarked pages so that had to stop! Instead I will say that many countries and cultures are represented in the book. Some terms will be familiar to you like “hygge.” Others you will not have heard of. I can tell you that each word and write up will make you think about your life and what you value.
This book is enhanced by what I found to be very calm and lovely muted color illustrations. I recommend that you take a look at this one. It is a perfect antidote to the frenetic holiday season.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Quarto for this one.
From the book: Some examples
A Few Choice Words from The Happiness Passport: A world tour of joyful living in 50 words
|
|
|
|
|---|---|---|
VERSTEHEN | noun | German 1. understanding 2. (Sociology) deeply empathic understanding of the behaviour of others, or putting yourself in another’s shoesA great deal of human unhappiness arises when we fail to ‘see eye to eye’, or we misunderstand each other. If only there was a rational and well thought-out method of comprehending the behaviour of others … Well, funnily enough, there is – verstehen – and trust the ever-practical German people to have been the ones to come up with it. This is not simply understanding from a distance, but evokes the English expression that we put ourselves in another’s shoes: we attempt to see someone’s behaviour from their own perspective. |
UBUNTU | noun | Nguni Bantu 1. a common bond of unanimity between all peopleNone of us successfully become individuals capable of feeling true happiness without one very important ingredient: other people. Our early survival is entirely dependent upon the compassion, support and communication of caring others. Our identities, and even our very lives are, quite literally, given to us by others. Enter a word, therefore, that both clarifies and celebrates the significance of this human reciprocity, originating in the South African Bantu languages of Zulu and Xhosa: ubuntu. |
AJURNAMAT | expression | Inuit (Inuktitut) 1. calm acceptance when something cannot be helped or is out of one’s controlA great many of our less-than-happy moments arise when we frantically attempt to control something that is beyond our power to change. In the influential ‘Serenity Prayer’ – a short and well-known mantra often used in rehabilitation programmes – we ask to be granted the serenity to accept the things we cannot control, the courage to change what we can and the wisdom to know the difference. This illustrates a profoundly simple yet challenging philosophy to live by – and one that can often mean the difference between our happiness and unhappiness. |
#TheHappinessPassport #NetGalley |
Joyce's mystery and fiction book reviews with some non-fiction too! 