WHY WHITE SOX AND CUB FANS AND DANES ARE HAPPY.

March 25, 2007 · Baseball, Science, Sports

WHY WHITE SOX AND CUB FANS AND DANES ARE HAPPY. This is a great time of year for Chicago baseball fans. Games in the Cactus League (and the Grapefruit League) don’t count. We can cherish hopes, knowing that they are probably unrealistic. Young players give hope, if not for this year, for the next year (”Wait til next year” can start even before the season starts). This post on an interesting blog I came across while reading Daniel Gilbert’s book on THE SUBSTANCE OF HAPPINESS has a scientific explanation for this: “According to a new study published in the BMJ, the Danish are happier than people in other developed nations because they have low expectations. That’s the dismal secret of happiness: not expecting very much from life in the first place.” As a Dane and a White Sox fan, I have every reason to be happy.

5 comments

Nick March 26, 2007 at 2:41 AM

Haha, oh God.

I guess that’s a slap in the face to me. Every time the Bulls would start a game down 2-0, Dad would posit that they would never win another game again. In fact, they might not ever score another point again.

Annalisa March 27, 2007 at 1:06 PM

Wow, Dad, I thought that your low expectations (and low requirements for happiness–see “hedonist with bad taste”) were just a part of your own individual life philosophy. So did you learn this way of thinking from your mother? I guess I never really thought about what Grandma Schaefer’s philosophies on life were. I knew she cared about good manners and working hard, but I never knew what she thought concerning happiness.

I like the phrase “the dismal secret of happiness.”

Nick, I remember well how you and Dad would sometimes argue about Dad’s dreary predictions for the game, the season, the rest of the Bulls’ career. At least you guys could agree on the bad calls though!

Mary Jane March 29, 2007 at 9:28 PM

I am thrilled that Pater Familias is happy.

Pater Familias » WHY ARE DANES HAPPY? (REVISITED). August 12, 2007 at 6:36 PM

[...] ARE DANES HAPPY? (REVISITED). I posted earlier on research which claimed that Danes are happier than others because they have lower expectations. [...]

WHY DO PEOPLE FEAR COMPLIMENTS? | Pater Familias June 6, 2009 at 6:51 PM

[...] author of the Atlantic article, gives the example of the Danish attitude to life which I posted on here (”the Danish are happier than people in other developed nations because they have low [...]