I’ve always consider the state of Georgia to be a happy place. I grew up here and have lived my whole life here. I’ve never seriously considered living anywhere else.
But apparently, we aren’t happy here.
According to an annual poll from the Gallup organization, Georgia is ranked as the 29th happiest state in the union.
That surprises me, unless Gallup talked mostly to people in Atlanta, who have to fight interstate fires, sinkholes and cracked pavement just to get to work in the morning. I doubt I’d be happy if I had to drive to work in gridlock traffic every morning, either.
According to the survey, people who live in the West and Midwest generally are the happiest. People who live in the South are the unhappiest. Even as low as Georgia was ranked, it was still the third-happiest state in the South behind Virginia (21st happiest) and South Carolina (27th).
Gallup says happiness scores are based on participants' answers to questions about their sense of purpose, social relationships, financial lives, community involvement and physical health.
Hawaii was named the happiest state. That’s hardly a surprise. The weather is beautiful, the scenery is breathtaking, and, if you play your cards right, you can spend most of your time sitting under a palm tree while a gorgeous woman in a grass skirt brings you drinks with an umbrella in it.
Alaska, somewhat surprisingly, is the second happiest state. At first, I couldn’t understand why Alaska was so high on the happiness list. But then I realized that there aren’t very many people in Alaska, which means there aren’t strip shopping centers or fast-food restaurants dotting the landscape.
Instead there are lots of wide-open spaces, plenty of room to move around, and residents probably don’t have to deal with traffic jams, even if a moose decides to stand in the middle of the road.
Of course, even the happiest of states have their down sides. Alaska, for instance, may have beautiful scenery, but for six months out of the year, it is covered with snow. And if you don’t see that moose in time, it can do a great deal of damage to your Honda Accord.
And some parts of Alaska don’t see the sun from mid-November until the end of January, and I’ve read there’s only one woman for every five men, a ratio that wouldn’t make me happy. Perhaps Alaska men are more open-minded than I am.
Even the paradise that is Hawaii isn’t perfect. According to a statistic I saw online, coconuts falling from trees kill 15 people each year. That certainly isn’t a happy statistic and it makes sitting under a palm tree with an umbrella drink far more dangerous than you’d think it ought to be.
I’m surprised that Georgia was so far down on the list, although I know it has its warts. Anyone who has spent 10 minutes in a South Georgia summer knows that the air is thick with humidity, and there is no breeze from June to October.
But, you don’t have to worry about a coconut falling on your head in Georgia. Our most prevalent piece of produce is the peanut, and I don’t recall anyone ever dying from a peanut falling out of a tree, mainly because peanuts grow in the ground.
That should make us all happy.
