An attitude of gratitude

On the way home from church Sunday, I tuned into a program to hear the host saying that the World Happiness Report published by the United Nations found Israel to be the fourth happiest country in the world behind Finland, Denmark and Iceland. He added a little personal commentary saying that was the nicest thing the U.N. ever said about Israel! Wanting to hear more about how a population living 24/7 under the threat of annihilation by its neighbors could be so happy, I took to the internet. This information is out there for you to review as well.

One of the first articles I found, probably thanks to Google’s algorithm, was in Al Jazeera which thought the data flawed and influenced by rich Western nations with a high gross domestic product (GDP) per capita. It focused on race and colonialism, referring to “stolen” happiness. Given similar rhetoric in D.C. these days, you’d think the United States would have ranked lower than 15 out of 137 countries. While Al Jazeera reveled in ticking off the ills of drug use, suicides and homelessness in some developed countries, it neglected to speculate on the impact of politics and religion on happiness.

Looking for another point of view and wanting to find out from Israelis themselves why they’re so happy, I went to JewishUnpacked.com. The article did note that the data was collected from 2020-2022 before Israeli judicial reform was announced but article contributors disagreed if the response would have been different post-reform.

While many Israelis are happy because of the beauty of their country, the mix of cultures, food and languages, others attributed the country’s ranking to “an attitude of gratitude.”

Similar responses were, “We’re always happy with what we have” and “I always try to find the good in every situation and to be as happy as I can with what I have.”

Then there was Rabbi David Bashevkin who said, “The ultimate joy in life is knowing that your life is anchored in something beyond yourself.”

Rabbi Yishai offered a spiritual and religious answer to the question. “Why is a person happy? Because he knows why he wakes up in the morning, he knows what his role is in the world.”

I like that “attitude of gratitude!” Now that’s really celebrating Thanksgiving!

The column represents the thoughts and opinions of Connie Clements. Opinion columns are NOT the opinion of the Navasota Examiner. Clements is a freelance reporter for the Navasota Examiner and an award-winning columnist.