The Human Side of the Story

For the week ending 26 March 2011 / 19 Adar II 5771

Formula for Happiness

by Rabbi Mendel Weinbach zt'l
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For the last three years, Galluphas called 1,000 randomly selected American adults each day and asked them about their emotional status, work satisfaction, eating habits, illnesses, stress levels and other indicators of their quality of life.

Gallup’s answer: He’s a tall, Asian-American, observant Jew who is at least 65 and married, has children, lives in Hawaii, runs his own business and has a household income of more than $120,000 a year. A few phone were made to find such a person.

Meet Alvin Wong. He is a 5-foot-10, 69-year-old, Chinese-American, kosher-observing Jew, who’s married with children and lives in Honolulu. He runs his own health care management business and earns more than $120,000 a year.

Reached by phone at his home on Friday, Mr. Wong said that he was indeed a very happy person. He said that perhaps he manages to be the happiest man in America because “my life philosophy is, if you can’t laugh at yourself, life is going to be pretty terrible for you.”

He continued: “This is a practical joke, right?”

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