3 Degrees of Happiness?

An early 1990’s movie was based on the theory that everyone on earth is only six people away from knowing everyone else.

Now a couple British social scientists have studied thousands of people to show that happiness is contagious! The study, published last winter in a medical journal, suggest happiness spreads from person to person up to three people out. It is contagious through our social networks – neighbors, friends, family and relatives, coworkers, church members – shaping what we do and how we feel.

In the lyrics of a song, whose artist and title escape me, it says “Take a hand everybody and show you’re proud. There is happiness to be.” Thinking of the happiness study, it made me think how Soroptimist members take the hand (to serve) of women and girls in our community.

Think how many different ways that ripples out with happiness.

From personal experience, there’s the happiness I feel when working on a project with other women – seeing our positive action make something better. We’re all working together so we achieve more than I could by myself.

Then there is the happiness the work brings to others. Hopefully when the shelter residents get our care bags, it brightens their day. The organizations that get our donated linens are less stressed about providing for their clients and they are happier. I’m sure the WOA recipients are happier when they learn we’ll help their educational efforts.

Next because those folks are happier, I hope they spread it on to someone else. Maybe that happiness leads to them having the confidence to start a new job, finish school, or use their talents to help someone else.

Our community service committee is taking a survey of talents. It’s a good time to reflect on all our personal talents, things we can be happy about, and think how we can use those to spread happiness in our own network!

Ingredients for Life

More than one club or organization has a mission statement or one of its core values the importance of women helping women or women helping girls. I think it is natural for us to want to help each other, share experiences, maybe even save others from similar misfortunes.

My teenage daughter and I saw Julie and Julia together recently. We share a passion for cooking. What I hadn’t expected was how much more we both learned about each other on the ride home after the movie.

Julia Childs didn’t settle for a French cooking class for housewives, she insisted on being part of the class for professional cooks – all male in those days. Young women and girls don’t experience those limitations today.

Both Julie and Julia discovered they had a passion for cooking. That passion led their lives/careers into new directions. Both women also had wonderfully supporting husbands; not the ‘yes dear’ but fully engaged support that most of us seek from our girlfriends.

Soon SITK members will have an opportunity to be fully engaged and support young girls. I’m so excited about this. There will be diverse ways for us to interact so that time or skills won’t limit our involvement. I encourage all of us to be involved as we really can make a difference - we can help them discover themselves and their passion for life. We can help them find the ingredients for life so they can create their own 'recipes!'