Nancy Flanagan, retired teacher, writes here about Scandinavian concepts that she admires. She points to the link between happiness and well-being, which we as a nation seem determined to ignore. These days, some people think it’s “woke” to want all children to be well-fed, well-cared for, their basic needs met. I’m willing to take that chance and that label. Call me woke.
She writes:
The ubiquitous FB meme:
In Iceland, books are exchanged as Christmas Eve presents, then you spend the rest of the night in bed reading them and eating chocolate. The tradition is part of a season called Jolabokafload, the Christmas Book flood, because Iceland, which publishes more books per capita than any other country, sells most of its books between September and November, due to people preparing for the upcoming holiday.
Nobody ever responds: That sounds awful! My family prefers watching our individual TVs!
Generally, commenters reply wistfully, longing for a country where learning is valued and books are ideal gifts, where the dark and cold are counterbalanced by intellectual curiosity and conversation.
Thanks to the Jolabokaflod, books still matter in Iceland, they get read and talked about. Excitement fills the air. Every reading is crowded, every print-run is sold. Being a writer in Iceland you get rewarded all the time: People really do read our books, and they have opinions, they love them or they hate them. At the average Christmas party, people push politics and the Kardashians aside and discuss literature.
Perhaps because I live in a region that gets 135 inches of snow each winter, these cozy, fireside literary chats are enormously appealing to me. As is the Danish concept of hygge:
“The Danish art of contentment, comfort, and connection…a practical way of creating sanctuary in the middle of very real life.”
Hygge (hoo-ga), which has no direct translation into English—surprise!—is many things to many people: Woolen socks. Candles and other gentle light. Board games. Comfortable couches and cozy quilts. Warm drinks.
Although hygge seems to have Scandinavian roots, it’s not exclusively a cold-climate thing, evidently. A rustic cottage on a lake, with its beat-up furniture, mildewed paperbacks from the 1950s and second-hand bathing suits is very hygge, according to Meik Wiking, author of “The Little Book of Hygge” and, not coincidentally, CEO of the Happiness Research Institute in Copenhagen. The mere fact that there is a Happiness Research Institute, somewhere in the world, makes me—well, happy….
Perhaps Scandinavians are better able to appreciate the small, hygge things in life because they already have all the big ones nailed down: free university education, social security, universal health care, efficient infrastructure, paid family leave, and at least a month of vacation a year. With those necessities secured, according to Wiking, Danes are free to become “aware of the decoupling between wealth and wellbeing.”
That decoupling between wealth and wellbeing is well-reflected in this headline: Children Need Homes, Not Charter Schools or Standardized Tests, and Definitely Not Tax Cuts for the Wealthy.
That’s where our intentionality lies in the U.S., where we’re spending our hard-earned tax dollars—canned curricula designed to raise test scores and alternative school governance models, endless expensive tests—when over 100,000 New York City schoolchildren were homeless last year. According to former Senator Orin Hatch, we don’t even have money for poor children’s basic health care. As a nation, we have linked simple human well-being to wealth, and sealed it with the tamper-proof cap of low opportunity.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Scandinavians have a more balanced approach to life than most of us Americans. I am somewhat familiar with the concept of Hygge through my husband’s Danish American family. His mother was born in Copenhagen, and she came to the US as a six year old, not speaking a word of English. She remembers being in a special education class in Brooklyn because she didn’t speak English. No ESL/ENL in those days! My father-in-law was also a Danish American businessman. He worked hard, but he also knew how to relax with his friends at the Danish Athletic Club and take the time for his favorite past time, fishing. Hygge is about keeping life simple, taking time to get out in nature and connecting with friends and family. My husband grew up in a more economically secure, relaxed setting. I also had a loving but blue collar family growing up, but it was less relaxed because the threat of economic collapse always loomed on the horizon. My dad grew up poor, and he worked as a machinist in manufacturing where he would alternate between getting laid off and working overtime depending the availability of work. We owned our own home; we never missed a meal, but the stress was palpable. It didn’t leave a lot of time for balance, but my parents tried the best they could to provide it. Thank goodness college was affordable in those days. My brother and I both graduated from college.
By the way, Denmark is riding the economic crest of Novo Nordisk, a Danish pharmaceutical company that created Ozempic. This company is now trying to figure out way to cure diabetes. Americans could have more hygge in their lives if we had a more inclusive economy, and so many were not in a subsistence existence and preoccupied with living in survival mode.
LikeLike
What a lovely story. Thank you for sharing it.
I’ve heard that Novo Nordisk is the whole Danish economy
LikeLike
The Danes lack Norway’s oil or Sweden’s diverse economy, but they have a winner in Novo Nordisk.
LikeLike
OK. Moving to Iceland.
LikeLike
I love Icelandic sagas. Try Volsung Saga and Njal’s Saga. I wonder what happened to those pillaging Vikings?
LikeLike
They are now among the happiest countries in the world due to strong social safety nets.
LikeLike