The Truth About Icelandic Happiness 冰島：滿滿的幸福哪里來？

木沐

幾年前，我在隆冬時節去了冰島。這樣一個漂浮在北大西洋上的小小的北歐國家，冬夜漫漫，地勢險峻，火山隨時噴發，是如何成為全世界最幸福的國度之一的？我迷戀這里，我充滿好奇。在我走后沒多久，冰島便陷入了嚴重的經濟危機，銀行垮臺，失業率翻到八倍，老人甚至領不到自己的養老金。我以為冰島人的幸福感就會這樣消散了，然而我錯了。

Several years back， I visited Iceland in the dead of winter1. I was researching a book on global happiness， and the small Nordic nation intrigued me.2 What was this country， adrift in the freezing North Atlantic， doing perched atop the worlds happiness rankings？3

In pursuit of answers， I buttonholed anyone willing to talk， dined on harkl （rotten shark）， drank excessively， and， of course， took a dip in the Blue Lagoon， the otherworldly geothermal waters that have become synonymous with Icelandic bliss.4

Shortly after I left， Icelands largest banks went belly up and the nations economy teetered on the verge of collapse， collateral damage from the global financial meltdown of 2008.5 The unemployment rate spiked eightfold.6 Trust in institutions， like the banks and parliament， plummeted.7

I assumed that the nations happiness also nosedived8.

I was wrong.

“The economic crisis had a limited effect on happiness，” according to health scientist Dora Gudmundsdottir， author of an exhaustive9 study published in the Social Indicators Research journal. Not only did the nations overall happiness dip10 only slightly during the crisis， but 25% of Icelanders reported greater happiness. What was going on？

I emailed Karl Bl?ndal， a newspaper editor I had met in Reykjavik11. “A lot of individuals have been hit hard， pensioners12 lost their savings. But one thing about living in a small community is that everyone you know is within reach，” he explained. “Those who lose their jobs are not isolated， the risk of estrangement is not the same as it would be in bigger societies.”13

Here was an essential truth about Icelandic happiness： it is largely a collective enterprise.14

Iceland， even with its cosmopolitan capital of Reykjavik， resembles a small town in many ways.15 People neednt worry about falling into a black hole， Icelanders say， because there is no black hole to fall into you. Theres always someone to catch you. As one American immigrant16 to Iceland told me， if your car is stuck in the snow， someone will always， always stop. In fact， trust levels are so high that its not unusual to see six-year-olds walking to school alone in the winter darkness.

In a typically optimistic Icelandic statement， Bl?ndal even managed to see the opportunity embedded in17 the financial crisis. “Now we can wipe the slate clean18. Who knows—this might just as well be an opportunity to forge a better， more open society where power is more diffused and the old vested interests and economic blocks have been cleared out of the way.”19

This idea of an open， fair society seems to be key.

According to a recent United Nations report on world happiness， happiness is evenly distributed20 in Iceland. That is， most Icelanders are more or less equally happy， while in other nations—particularly those in the Middle East and Latin America—happiness levels vary tremendously21. This is important because “new research suggests that people are significantly happier living in societies where there is less inequality of happiness.” In other words， we can achieve only so much happiness if our neighbours are miserable.22 Icelanders seem to intuitively recognise this essential truth.23

Icelanders have also developed a fierce resilience honed over centuries of deprivation and isolation.24 Think winter darkness， volcanic eruptions and unforgiving terrain so otherworldly that NASA dispatched the Apollo astronauts here in 1965 to train for their upcoming moon walks.25

You see this sort of stubborn26 optimism at work every day in Iceland. You see it in the way people swim outdoors， year round， or how there is no stigma27 attached to abandoning a bad job or relationship. This resilience can also be found in the countrys rich literary culture， one that dates back to the old sagas—Viking tales of heroism in the face of adversity.28

Today， Iceland publishes more books per capita29 than any country in the world. Some psychologists believe that literature—and other cultural resources—provides a buffer during difficult times.30 Stories provide a vehicle for expressing grief，31 and grief expressed is grief reduced. They also provide a means for a culture to channel32 its creative energies.

And Icelanders certainly recognise the value of the written word， an attitude reflected in a common Icelandic saying： “Better to go barefoot than without books.”33

A happy thought， if ever there were one.

1. in the dead of winter： 在隆冬。

2. Nordic： 北歐國家的；intrigue： 引起……的興趣。

3. adrift： 漂浮著的；perche： 把……置于高處；atop： 在頂端。

4. 為了尋求答案，我拉住想聊天的人不放，品嘗了用腐爛的鯊魚肉制作的佳肴，喝到酩酊大醉，當然還去藍湖泡了個澡，那里超凡的地熱溫泉已經成為冰島幸福的代名詞。buttonhole： 強留（人）談（或聽）；excessively： 過度地；take a dip： 洗澡，泡澡；Blue Lagoon： 冰島藍湖地熱溫泉，位于冰島西南部，是世界頂級的療養勝地；otherworldly： 超脫世俗的；geothermal water： 地熱水；synonymous with： 與……同義；bliss： 無上幸福，極樂。

5. go belly up： 破產，倒閉；teeter on the verge of...： 瀕臨，處在（危險或災難）的邊緣；collapse： 失敗，倒閉； collateral： 附帶的；meltdown： 崩潰，垮臺。

6. spike： 急速增長；eightfold： 八倍地。

7.parliament： 國會，議會； plummet： 暴跌，速降。

8. nosedive： 暴跌，驟降。

9. exhaustive： 詳盡的，徹底的。

10. dip： 下降。

11. Reykjavik： 雷克雅未克，冰島首都。

12. pensioner： 領養老金的人。

13. isolate： 使隔離，使孤立，下文isolation為其名詞形式； estrangement： 疏遠。

14. collective： 集體的，共同的； enterprise：（尤指艱巨而重大的）規劃，事業。

15. cosmopolitan： 世界性的； resemble： 類似，像。

16. immigrant： 移民。

17. embed in： 把……嵌入。

18. wipe the slate clean： 把往事一筆勾銷。

19. 誰知道呢——這也許還能作為一個機會，來創建一個更美好更開放的社會，使權力更好地下放，也使過去那種特權階級和經濟封鎖不再當道。forge： 鍛造，使形成；diffused： 普及的，分散的； vested interests： [復]既得利益者，特權階級。

20. evenly distributed： 均勻分布的。

21. tremendously： 非常地，極其地。

22. only so much： 只有這么多（意指不多）； miserable： 悲慘的，痛苦的。

23. intuitively： 直觀地，直覺地；essential： 本質的，根本的。

24. fierce： 強烈的；resilience： 恢復力，復原力；hone： 磨練，訓練；deprivation： 貧困，缺乏。

25. 試想漫長冬夜、火山噴發和險峻地勢，這里環境如此奇險，使得美國國家航空航天局在1965年把阿波羅號的宇航員送來這里訓練，以迎接他們即將來臨的太空之旅。volcanic eruption： 火山噴發；terrain： 地形，地勢；NASA： 美國國家航空航天局；dispatch： 派遣，發送；Apollo： 阿波羅號宇宙飛船；astronaut： 宇航員。

26. stubborn： 難以擊敗的，頑強的。

27. stigma： 羞恥，見不得人的感覺。

28. literary culture： 文學文化；saga： 長篇故事，英勇冒險故事；Viking：（公元8到11世紀的）北歐海盜；heroism： 英雄氣概，英雄行為；adversity： 逆境，不幸。

29. per capita： 人均地。

30. psychologist： 心理學家；buffer： 緩沖物。

31. vehicle： 工具，手段；grief： 悲痛，悲傷。

32. channel： 傳送，引導。

33. 光腳走路都比沒有書強。barefoot： 光著腳的。