Two articles in The New York Times this week vividly illustrate the two sides of the Gross National Happiness coin.  Call “heads,” and you can stare long and hard into oncoming environmental disaster; crumbling infrastructures coast-to-coast; and a shocking and increasing gap between the wealthy and everyone else — all symptoms of the urgent need for a new policy making paradigm.  Ie, a GNH approach.

But flip the coin to “tails,” and you can revel in the many, many ways our lives can be enriched through our own personal GNH prisms: spending time in a more fulfilling way with loved ones (or even alone, in contemplation); buying locally grown foods in the wonderfully social farmers markets; or breaking our addiction to “stuff” that ends up weighing us down emotionally and financially.  As we move forward in these rapidly changing times, we can actually choose happiness. Amazing.

On August 8th, The NYT showed us the dark side with a very sobering commentary by Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman entitled, “America Goes Dark.”  What is happening to the country now, when policies are made based on monetary gain for some versus the well-being of a few?  Krugman writes of an “antigovernment campaign” that “has reached fruition” — putting at risk “services that everyone except the very rich need, services that the government will provide or nobody will, like lighted streets, drivable roads and decent schooling for the public as a whole.  So the end result of the long campaign against government is that we’ve taken a disastrously wrong turn.  America is now on the unlit, unpaved road to nowhere.”  Here’s the link for the full column:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/09/opinion/09krugman.html

On the other hand, on August 7th, The Times published a lengthy account of ways stepping off the consumer treadmill can actually make us happier (surprise, surprise!).  Entitled, “But Will It make You Happy?” the story by Stephanie Rosenbloom focuses on a young Portland, Oregon couple that did some major downsizing — including the decision to go car-free.  (They have bikes.)

The article observes that “Amid week job and housing markets, consumers are saving more and spending less than they have in decades …”  The article goes on, “the practices that consumers have adopted in response to the economic crisis ultimately could — as a raft of new research suggests — make them happier.”

Rosenbloom’s story is full of gems for each of us to ponder in our own lives.  I highly recommend reading it:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/08/business/08consume.html?pagewanted=1&ref=general&src=me