Typically, I don’t bother with reading the newspaper or with watching the news on television – especially the news. It’s too negative. I much prefer to live in my own happy little world than hear or read about the latest robberies, shootings, etc. But, while visiting my mom recently, I decided to give the newspaper a flip-through. I was surprised to find an article that both made me smile and made me want to share - I clipped it out to bring home with me.
The article? Louisiana ranks as happiest state - A new study aimed to find the happiest Americans. The results are based on data collected from a survey of 1.3 million people conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The study examined a person’s self-reported happiness and more objective factors known to impact quality of life such as how crowded the state is, air quality, climate, crime rates, etc.
And… the results… the top five states are…
1 – Louisiana
2 – Hawaii
3 – Florida
4 – Tennessee
5 – Arizona
Yeap, Louisiana is at the top – at the top in a good way. A complete ranking of the 50 states can be found here. And, the technical, scientific yada yada is here.
Well, I don’t know about you… but this just made me feel all warm and fuzzy. Obviously, being from South Louisiana, I’m a little biased. It was noted that sunny, outdoorsy states faired higher on the list and I tend to agree. Did you see the picture at the top of this post? Who wouldn’t want to take a deep breath and simply enjoy the fresh air? I took the picture in the bayous behind my house when a friend took me out for a boat ride to take some reference photos for my paintings.
Also, I think it simply has to do with the culture – a big part of which is the music - jazz, cajun music, zydeco, swamp pop, blues. I visited a friend in California a couple years ago and we were walking around the beach area across from a skate park and the Santa Monica pier area – there were all of these wonderful little shops to pop in and out of. It was a great day and I thoroughly enjoyed it, but I remember asking him where the music was. The area had a nice, relaxed feel that begged for strolling down the sidewalk, but music wasn’t pouring out of anywhere. That’s like a banana split without the cherry on top, or bread pudding without the rum sauce, or a bloody mary without the vodka. Hummpphh.
Louisiana – the happiest state – I’ll be damned!
The article? Louisiana ranks as happiest state - A new study aimed to find the happiest Americans. The results are based on data collected from a survey of 1.3 million people conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The study examined a person’s self-reported happiness and more objective factors known to impact quality of life such as how crowded the state is, air quality, climate, crime rates, etc.
And… the results… the top five states are…
1 – Louisiana
2 – Hawaii
3 – Florida
4 – Tennessee
5 – Arizona
Yeap, Louisiana is at the top – at the top in a good way. A complete ranking of the 50 states can be found here. And, the technical, scientific yada yada is here.
Well, I don’t know about you… but this just made me feel all warm and fuzzy. Obviously, being from South Louisiana, I’m a little biased. It was noted that sunny, outdoorsy states faired higher on the list and I tend to agree. Did you see the picture at the top of this post? Who wouldn’t want to take a deep breath and simply enjoy the fresh air? I took the picture in the bayous behind my house when a friend took me out for a boat ride to take some reference photos for my paintings.
Also, I think it simply has to do with the culture – a big part of which is the music - jazz, cajun music, zydeco, swamp pop, blues. I visited a friend in California a couple years ago and we were walking around the beach area across from a skate park and the Santa Monica pier area – there were all of these wonderful little shops to pop in and out of. It was a great day and I thoroughly enjoyed it, but I remember asking him where the music was. The area had a nice, relaxed feel that begged for strolling down the sidewalk, but music wasn’t pouring out of anywhere. That’s like a banana split without the cherry on top, or bread pudding without the rum sauce, or a bloody mary without the vodka. Hummpphh.
Louisiana – the happiest state – I’ll be damned!
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