I recently
watched a Netflix documentary called “Happy.” In the film researchers went
around the world to answer the question: What really brings happiness to a
person’s life?
In the slums of
Kolkata, India, they met a rickshaw driver named Manis Singh. Manis transports
people around the city pulling people with his one-seater rickshaw. He lives in
a small shack with his wife and two children. Manis doesn’t have an easy life.
During the summer the heat burns through his thinly-soled shoes as he pulls
people around the city, and when the monsoons arrive, the rain blows into his
shack through the blue tarps he uses as walls.
But though Manis
has very little of this world’s material wealth, the filmmakers concluded he is
basically a happy person, at least as happy as the average American. What
brings him happiness is returning home to see his young son at the top of the
hill waiting for him at the end of the day. His little boy, his loving wife,
and his newborn baby bring him happiness.
At the end of the
film the researchers suggested five things that make people happy:
- Taking time to play
- New experiences
- Close connections to friends and family
- Doing things that are meaningful
- Appreciating what we have
Watching the
documentary reinforced my own conviction about happiness: Committed Christians
are the happiest people in the world. Here are five reasons:
