Listening to the news last night I was amazed to hear that Portland, Oregon was named the unhappiest city in America. That was according to Business Week Magazine who based their choice on a variety of factors, including depression rates, suicide rates, divorce rates, crime, unemployment, population loss, job loss, weather and green space. St Louis, Mo was number two, New Orleans number three and rounding out the top ten, in order; Detroit, Cleveland, Jacksonville, Fla, Las Vegas, Nashville-Davidson, Tenn., Cincinnati and Atlanta.

 

Well I was born in Portland and hardly think of it as an unhappy city, in fact I found it to be a very happy city to grow up in and when I visit frequently I really enjoy it!  I can also say that I’ve been to seven of the ten cities mentioned and all seven of those places are, in my opinion, a lot more depressing and unhappy than Portland could ever be!

 

However I now happily reside in Yachats and that got me to thinking about our villages and cities here on the Central Oregon Coast. Are there unhappy residents here? Given the factors that Business Week used I know there are folks here who are dealing with many of those factors including divorces, unemployment and job loss but generally I don’t get an overwhelming sense of unhappiness. Perhaps that is why we live here, when things get goofy and out of whack we still have natures beauty, small town involvements, friends and neighbors who can be counted on and other factors that make living here much more palatable that it would be in a large urban city setting. It’s hard for me to become depressed when I zip down to Florence and enjoy old town, tough to be sad when I go visit friends or attend high school events in Waldport, don’t get at all sad when I stop in Seal Rock for a quick coffee or remotely bummed out when I go to South Beach or when I enjoy a meal in one of Newport’s many restaurants. The drive to Tidewater is always a pleasure, as well as the fun drive to Five Rivers.

 

I’m not suggesting that life is always rosy in our part of the world but in comparison to other parts of the country it’s pretty good. Again it’s hard to be unhappy when you see the sun gloriously coloring the sky in a magnificent shade of orange as it sets in the west or you catch a glimpse of a whale or watch an Eagle soar above the trees.  It’s even hard to be unhappy when you get behind a school bus on Highway 101 that stops frequently to let the kids off.  Just the sight of them bouncing off the bus and running towards their homes full of energy and enthusiasm can bring a smile to the face of even the grumpiest of us!

 

I’m not even unhappy as I notice the two deer right outside of my window taking aim at my rose bush but I’m going to have to wrap this up now so I can politely ask them to go chew on something else!

 

Enjoy your life here and let’s count our blessings we aren’t in one of those real unhappy cities!

 

To reach Rick Schultze email; yarick@pioneer.net

 

 

 

 

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