Happy Anyhow

Everybody these days is woo-woo and wackadoodle with telling the world to BE HAPPY NOW and happiness comes from within. But, Americans still seem to having a National Pity Party. I know the economy is poor, there a no jobs and food prices are rising like crazy. I see that some people are racking in the dough for doing jobs no one seems to be able to make my Ivy League physician brain understand. I get just a little irritated as banks are bailed out, but now won’t give loans to small businesses and foreclose cold heartedly on people who have been unemployed for two years.

Some of us are happy anyhow though. We have always understood that it comes from within. So American needs to learn from its darker brothers and sisters how to be truy happy from within. A new study shows that Black Americans are becoming happier. This finding is quite perplexing to most as the indicators for of a better life have seem to have gotten worse. Income inequality has risen; black people are more likely to be poor. Black people earn 18% of college degrees versus 27% for the total population. Only about one third of Black women are married. 70% of black children are born outside of marriage. The Black infant mortality rate remains inexcusably high in our advanced medical culture.

Black people are happy anyhow. In days past, folds used to make fun of the happy go lucky black man with the bare feet and straw hat. We have loved to watch the happiness of the fat mammie women whose image pervades in modern-day media.

Studies can try to explain this happiness despite circumstance in many ways. Religious folks know that it is a spiritual evolution that allows one to be happy no matter their circumstance. We have watched leaders, especially spiritual ones, display happiness in horrible circumstances. Look at Paul of the Bible in jail, and look at Martin Luther King Jr and Gandhi in similar circumstances. I have noticed through my world travels that people who might be very poor by American standards can be very happy. So much so that the whole culture and air is permeated with joy. This is what is really sacred about the Sacred Valley in Peru.

Of course we don’t want people to be without food, water, clothes, and shelter. But in America, practically everyone has what would be luxuries in another country. I have been to low income place in the US and there are satellite dishes, cell phones, and indoor plumbing. The quality of life the American poor would make them wealthy in many places. Although equality is the goal, if you look at black America we are wealthy compared to many of our brothers and sisters around the world.

One of the attitudes that I have learned from my travels is gratitude. Let me tell you one of my favorite gratitude statements: I am happy and grateful that I was born here in America. I could have been born a woman in Afghanistan. I could be the Saudi woman about to be stoned for adultery. I could have been placed in Darfur. I could have been born in Egypt where female circumcision is still commonplace (and celebrated by mothers). Slavery is over in America but I could have been placed in a circumstance of being traded or sold as a sex slave like those young girls from eastern Europe. But even so, I have met people who have been in the worst of circumstances and are joyous and happy.

People should continue to lobby for positive change to increase equality in our country and world. On the way to that equality, we should be happy. Notice I did not say to be complacent. Black America certainly has never been complacent with their circumstances. Don’t think that Obama being the President means that all the woes of Black America are over. Statistics still show some major issues which as I pointed out are actually increasing despite our brown-skinned leader.

Happiness is an art. Happiness is sacred. People who have happiness have wealth.

We choose our own emotions. We choose are reactions to circumstances.Whatever happens, stand back take a breath, count to ten and then…..  choose Happiness Anyhow.

Dr. Veronica-This is Wellness for the REAL World!