In Search of Happiness in the Golden Years of Life:

In Search of Happiness in the Golden Years of Life:
This article is dedicated to the senior citizens of my hometown, San Vicente, Ilocos Sur, in celebration of the UN World Seniors Day and month (October).  Congratulations to the officers and members of Office of Senior Citizens Affairs (OSCA San Vicente Chapter) spearheaded by Dr Peroma L Pacis. 

Happiness is one commodity, which when you divide it, will multiply.” AVR

Dr Abe V Rotor

University Professor and Author

Have you heard of Gross National Happiness (GNH) Index?
Gross National Happiness (GNH) Index has recently gained a place in measuring the level of development of a country by inputing an elusive parameter which is happiness. GNH Index can be downsized for local application, individually or by group or community that is closely knit..
Parameters of Happiness of GNH Index:
1. Psychological Well-Being
2. Health
3. Time Use
4. Education
5. Cultural Diversity
6. Good Governance
7. Community Vitality
8. Ecological Diversity and Resilience
9. Living Standards
10. Family
11. Spirituality
12. Sense of Achievement


Church of San Vicente (IS); senior citizens pose after a Sunday mass.

Self-evaluation: Rate yourself using the Likert Scale: 1 Very Poor, 2 Poor, 3 Fair, 4 Good, and 5 Very Good. 

Compute the average by adding the values of all the parameter, and divide it sum with 12. This is the general perception of happiness of the person concerned. What is equally - if not more important - is in being able to find out the main source of happiness, at the same time, the least. This exercise therefore, is aimed at re-affirming our sense of values in the pursuit of happiness. So does a community. 

We say we are happy, or a little happy. Or unhappy. Or sad. But how can we quantify happiness like in a grading system?

The founding father of happiness research, Dr Happiness himself - Dr Edward Diener of the University of Illinois.* calls this technique The Satisfaction with Life Scale.

This test can be used in the classroom, in meetings and conferences, or just for the sake of bonding with friends and associates.

On a piece of paper rate yourself in each of the following items. Use a scale of 1 to 7, where 1 is not true at all, 4 is moderately true and 7 absolutely true. The scale allows you to approximate closer to your self-judgment.

Integrated art workshop for children conducted by senior citizens. Graduation with Vice Mayor Nancy Tabanda and OSCA Chair Dr Peroma L Pacis as guests in the workshop graduation. San Vicente, IS 2016

Here are the criteria:

1. In most ways my life is close to my ideal.
2. The conditions of my life are excellent.
3. I am satisfied with my life.
4. So far I have gotten the important things I want in life.
5. If I could live my life over, I would change almost nothing.

Compute for the total score by adding all values from the five questions. Here is the interpretation of your score.

· If you got 31 to 35, you are extremely satisfied with your life. Kudos!
· If you got 26 to 30, you are very satisfied with your life.
· If you scored 21 to 25, you are slightly satisfied. Two participants got scores on this level.
· Those who scored 15 to 19 (slightly dissatisfied) will have to perk up and unload some reasons. Get to the neutral point which is 20, and thence move up the happiness ladder.

It's not hopeless if you got low. The idea of this exercise is to create awareness that there are avenues of happiness, and that there are basic levels of happiness that one can cling to, and say, "Oh well, that's life." And still manage to laugh. And the world laughs with you.

Here is Wilcox's masterpiece which projected her to world fame as author and poetess.

The Way of the World

Laugh, and the world laughs with you,
Weep, and you weep alone;
For the brave old earth must borrow its mirth,
But has trouble enough of its own.

Sing and the hills will answer,
Sigh, it is lost on the air;
The echoes rebound to a joyful sound
And shrink from voicing care.

Rejoice, and men will seek you,
Grieve, and they turn to go;
They want full measure of your pleasure,
But they do not want your woe.

Be glad, and your friends are many,
Be sad, and you lose them all;
There is none to decline your nectared wine,
But alone you must drink life’s gall.

Feast, and your halls are crowded,
Fast, and the world goes by.
Forget and forgive – it helps you to live,
But no man can help you to die;

There’s room in the halls of pleasure
For a long and lordly train,
But one by one, we must all march on
Through the narrow isle of pain. ~

Good relationship is the key to happiness, specifically among spouses.  

Author and wife, Cecille Rotor.

Psalm of Life is the perhaps the most important poem written by America's darling poet, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882).

The poem is among the world's most quoted and recited pieces of literature; in fact, it is prayer by and in itself. It speaks of universal values, feelings and compassion, of valor and sacrifice, and of victory over ones own battle.

Longfellow himself, a victim of a family tragedy, rose to further fame and dignity. After the death of his wife in an accidental fire he went on raising his young children, and teaching in the university, experimenting with new forms and styles of poetry, producing Hiawatha and Evangeline that revolutionized poetry.

He is an excerpt to describe Longfellow's trial in life. "More than a score of years remained with the poet, and he had the love of his children and the comfort of his work, but the grief was so deep and lasting that he could not trust himself to speak the beloved name of his wife."

From sorrow rises a great triumph, and this is the testimony to greatness - to share not how the world should end, but how it must begin again. Not how one closes himself in, but opens himself to others. Not to "Go Gentle into the Night", but stand sentry to the "Light of Dawn".

Psalm of Life is dedicated to victims of calamities - force majeure and man-induced, circumstances beyond control, and all those who find life difficult to bear. And to those who grow solemn and sad in the sundet of life. May they find comfort, hope, and new meaning of life in Psalm of Life. ~

Psalm of Life

Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream!
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.

Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.

Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way;
But to act, that each tomorrow
Find us further than today.

Art is long, and time is fleeting,

And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
Funeral marches to the grave.

In the world's broad field of battle,
In the bivouac of life,
Be not like dumb, driven cattle,
Be a hero in the strife!

Trust no future, how'ver pleasant!
Let the dead past bury its dead!
Act - act in the living present!
Heart within, and Good o'erhead.

Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time.

Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing o'er life solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.

Let us then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait. ~
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“Go on! Live a true happy life – in spite of odds, difficulties and pains – and proudly say at Angelus time, “Yes, I have had a successful life.” This is the highest form of prayer and thanksgiving you can offer to the wonderful, benevolent Creator. “ -  AV Rotor