Picture this:
You live in the neighborhood on the left where the streets were designed with the passive approach. You have errands to run so you get in your car, driving from store to store, even though each store is located just a few hundred feet from each other. You get into your car, likely just to drive across the street and park in another massive and identical looking parking lot. Get out of your car, get back into your car, spend 5-10 minutes to travel .02 miles. Your errands take 2 or 3 hours out of your Saturday.
Or picture this:
You live in a "proactively-designed-streets" neighborhood, and you spend 5-20 minutes a day, stopping for your errands down the block as you walk home from work/school/etc.
What lifestyle sounds more appealing? Which is better for health, happiness, and what is easier on our natural resources?
________
Image adapted from the National Association of Transportation Officials Urban Street Design Guide
In an attempt to find a topic of conversation for today from the long list of websites I've bookmarked, a series of events lead me to an unusual article that is personally intriguing, but even more so, exceptionally relevant for this blog.
An article from Boundless (an award-winning ministry of Focus on the Family) entitled "The Happiness Trap" focuses on the relationship between parenting and happiness, but I think the whole article gets at something broader and quite possibly more important when it comes to happiness. The article is by itself interesting, but I will dissect it below according to how it fits in with this blog as well as my interests.
What does the word "happiness" mean? How do we describe it? Is it an accurate word to use to describe the emotional state of an individuals' emotional state or life, or even a country or society's state of being? This is what I'm getting at: everyone is "happy" sometimes, and "sad" sometimes. So in the grand scheme of things, happiness and the state of being happy doesn't really say anything about how someone is living; furthermore, the virtue and good fortune in our lives.
Eudaimonia is the Greek word that is sometimes translated into the English word "happiness," but there is more to this word. The Greek word refers to an objective state of being: "a combination of living well (virtue) and doing well (good fortune)." The English word "happy", is very much subjective and short-term feeling, precisely what makes it challenging to define, but also nearly impossible to be able to describe an individual's life or an entire society as this. If you could chose, what would you want for society; a short term emotion of joy or long-term virtue, good fortune, and quality living.
I believe that quality living (meaning virtue, as well as good fortune) directly impacts and leads to the maximum amount of what we know as "happiness"; maximum amounts of feelings of "joy." This can ultimately enable us to be generally happy people, allowing us to spread this feeling to others and have positive interactions and effects on people. But it starts with a life of quality.
On a different but related note, one of the most backwards notions of the American culture and society is the recurring theme that money and abundance creates happiness. People can acknowledge that this is myth, yet the culture we live in unfortunately makes the pursuit of wealth and abundance on the individual scale sometimes hard to escape. The infamous words from the U.S. Declaration of Independence "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness" have truly lost their meaning, or through the years have been misconstrued to the average American. Do we really have the maximum "freedom" to "pursue" a "happy" state of mind?
Happiness is not something that can be pursued. Living well and doing well is. We must help create a society that promotes the state of living virtuous and well in order to create actions of doing well in commitment to a collective betterment of all people. Then, and only then will we have a society that we can call "happy."
__________________
"What's true of the western tradition is also true of the eastern
tradition: In the Bhagavad-Gita, Lord Krishna tells the warrior Arjuna
that happiness lies not in some subjective state, much less seeking
after our own satisfaction, but rather from a whole-hearted pursuit of
goodness and harmony (sattva) and practice of spiritual disciplines (yoga)."
Eudaimonia defined by Google: (also known as Eudaemonism) a
Greek word, which refers to a state of having a good indwelling spirit
or being in a contented state of being healthy, happy and prosperous. In
moral philosophy, eudaimonia is used to refer to the right actions as those that result in the well-being of an individual.
Check out this Opinion Article from the New York Times about "Loving People, Not Pleasure" and the association between money and happiness.
A great article from the Guardian (thanks Scott Moen aka Dad!) about how many cities are transitioning away from cars. The article digs into a couple different facets, but I decided to highlight the link between the "end of the car age" and the "digital age," as it relates directly to me.
Digital technology will have a major role in creating collaborative platforms for urban mobility:
"Digital information is the fuel of mobility,” says Gilles Vesco, the politician responsible for the city of Lyon, France's sustainable transport. “Some transport
sociologists say that information about mobility is 50% of mobility. The
car will become an accessory to the smartphone."
"The more that we have people sharing transportation modes, public space,
information and new services, the more attractive the city will be."
In order for cities to compete they will need to be increasingly interconnected and multi-modal: a variety of public transit and healthy lifestyle options that include bike-friendly roadways, cycle superhighways, bike-shares, car-shares, bus service, subways, trams, and increased walkability. This also means cities will need to focus on providing reliable technological infrastructure. Being well connected on a physical and city-wide scale is equally important today as being connected on a digital scale. All which will lessen car-dependence and make owning a private automobile inconvenient relative to the variety of options that are readily available at our fingertips and often times free (transit apps for smartphones) or less expensive.
"Generation Y, or millennials, now in their 20s and early 30s
who have come of age in the digital era, seem less wedded to possessions
than their baby boomer predecessors. Smartphones are prized objects and the future of transport is likely to be based not on individually owned cars but on “mobility as a
service.”
Consumers will, so the theory goes, use their smartphones to check
ultra-detailed travel news, locate car-club cars or bikes, check for
parking spaces, call up Uber drivers, and arrange shared rides. Who needs a personally owned car?"
This
may be part of a "theory" of reality in general right now and as far as
this article goes, but, on a daily basis I either walk, take a bus, request an Uber, check my real-time travel app, or locate and arrange a car club or share. I am living proof that this is happening right
now.
It's hard to believe I visited San Francisco this past January 2015 before taking the real plunge in moving to the city the following month. I had been here once before in September 2011 for a tournament with my college soccer team (doesn't count, right?). Little did I know I would be back to stay, and so quick to fall in love with this place for so many reasons. The above picture was taken in January because I was so exited to finally be here and to start making observations on the minute details of the city that I have such an eye for. Unfortunately, I haven't had many pictures to follow this (hence my falling behind on intended posts). And there was also the whole "finding a place to live in the most expensive and housing-competitive city in the country" that was a distracting priority. It's almost as if I've stopped noticing many of the details that make this city amazing, and maybe that was okay too, because that's exactly what makes life in here that great. Natives or people who are accustomed to this lifestyle may not understand what makes this place tick. People who just experience living here shorter term question why they would ever leave and ask what was so wrong (different) about back home.
On a different note, that may be the best part: the chance to be and become a part of the routine, because I notice these things. I won't ever fail to recognize that I am living in what is quite possibly the closest to my dream world, every single day. These realizations have created the opportunity for me to be more conscious and mindful of what I do and see on a daily basis, with the goal of sharing my experiences here on this blog.
Some of my first observations of this city:
- The "Green Wave" that has traffic signals set for 13 mph - the average speed of a bike. Convenience for bikes is favored over cars.
- The density. San Francisco is 7 miles by 7 miles. It's a growing city. Everything must be built close, in between, or on top of something else.
- That makes it really easy to walk, bike, transit, etc. places (the most you would ever need to travel to get from one end of the city to the other is... 7 miles!)
- Suburban sprawl doesn't and physically cannot exist. Therefore big box stores and parking lots do not exist (my biggest eyesores!)
- Public transportation is almost too easy. So much variety! The electric buses are cool and it shows that the city cares about air pollution.
- It's annoying and expensive to own a car here. Parking? Traffic? No thanks.
- Then again people love their benz and beamers...money. But there are also many homeless people - the whole range is present.
- I expected more bicyclists. In my opinion, not enough people bike and/or the city could be doing more for bike commuters. Catering for hobby cyclists and tourists?
- The neighborhoods (!!) filled with contrasting vibes and people that allow the blending of diverse communities together.
- Oh yeah, and the weather is phenomenal.
For those of you who still check back and follow, thanks for sticking with me! Much much more to come,
Kristin
