Wise Bites: March 13, 2021

Happy Friday,

Whether you are completing your Spring Break week or are preparing for one next week, I hope your time off is beneficial. Now that you are ready to transition to the weekend let me help you get ready for the best week ever.

Take a moment to consume an illuminating segment from a book, a few quotes that will capture your attention, and a thought-provoking find from the internet - small bites of wisdom. Here is the Wise Bites memo for your consideration this week.

Book Segment

This week, I want to share a book segment from Ruth Whippman’s New York Times Bestseller from 2016, America the Anxious. In this delightful analysis of American culture, Whippman raises insightful questions about our understanding of happiness and the impact of our efforts to obtain it. As a British expatriate living in California, she exposes America’s seemingly obsessive and at-all-costs quest for happiness with humor and freshness, giving the reader the unique opportunity to reflect on his investment in happiness as a first-hand observer. Throughout the book, Whippman shares her experiences and reflections with charm and compelling innocence as she takes a pilgrimage through American culture to discover authentic contentment and happiness on this side of the pond. In Chapter Seven, “I’m Not a Happy Person, I Just Play One On Facebook,” Whippman’s sharp wit and cutting social commentary are on full display when she shares that,

Facebook is a parallel universe in which everyone is either stratospherically successful in their career, married to the ‘best guy ever,’ ‘enjoying every moment of motherhood,’ or in a state of single childlessness for which the only descriptive adjective permitted by the Social media authorities is ‘fabulous’.

Later, she gives a spot-on analysis of how social media has infiltrated our understanding of happiness when she posits that “in a culture that both insist that we have complete control over our happiness and too often equates unhappiness with inadequacy, social media gives us an unprecedented ability to craft and present a happy front.”

Are you happy? Are you as happy as you want to be? What would make you happier? Have you pondered these questions before and are now looking to take action to answer them? In that case, you should consider reading Ruth Whippman’s insightful and hilarious journey through America’s infatuation with happiness, America the Anxious. I am sure you will find this book a joy to read.

Quotes

Happiness is not a goal; it is a by-product. -Eleanor Roosevelt

The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts. -Marcus Aurelius

Stay tuned for future Wise Bites memos; share it online; and tell a friend!