First, flying FinnAir was routine, hassle-free flights—rare these days when air travel seems predictably unpredictable and stressful. Arriving in Helsinki, the first impression was crystallized by the fact that birdsong was piped into the airport restrooms! Our overall impression is further captured by the sentiment of Silas, our Uber driver from the airport in Helsinki. Silas immigrated to Finland from Kenya. When we asked him what he liked about Helsinki, he replied, “It’s quiet and safe.” On the surface, these characteristics can seem dull. But, they are the core of contentment.
We stayed in a wonderful apartment in Helsinki’s Design District; it was notably quiet, birds tweeted outside our open windows. Many streets are torn up, as the city is upgrading its infrastructure. Yet, as we walked around this exceedingly walkable city, we rarely heard car horns. And drivers actually STOP for pedestrians. Most remarkably, unaccompanied children are not uncommon.
Green space is (intentionally and inextricably) woven into the city; even with all the construction, it’s impossible to walk far without encountering open, nature spaces. The ubiquitous dandelions exuberantly blooming throughout came to represent Finland for us. A weed battled in the U.S. with toxic chemicals to kill it, the dandelion is embraced as a natural and necessary bloom in Finland. After all, it fulfills a crucial, natural function and beauty is in the eye of the pragmatic Finn. Like the dandelion carpet and birdsong soundtrack, Helsinki has a feel of beautiful practicality and permeating peace.
Both personally (as global citizens) and professionally (as social workers), we’ve been intrigued with Finland for many years—as it’s consistently number one in the World Happiness Index. From our studying it, we’ve come to understand that Finns’ happiness largely stems from their sense of satisfaction (enoughness), sisu, and social policies! We happily recommend reading Katja Pantzar’s The Finnish Way: Finding Courage, Wellness, and Happiness through the Power of Sisu. Pantzar explains that sisu (translated as grit, determination, resilience, fortitude) is embedded in Finnish culture. This sisu promotes a sense of efficacy and efficiency, personally and collectively. As we experienced in our brief visit, Finns focus on the enoughness of a “simple and sensible lifestyle.” This happy lifestyle prioritizes life balance—work, play, rest, movement, nutrition, nature, connection, solitude, and such basics. Or, maybe, it’s just the coffee. Finns drink more coffee per capita than any country.
And, all of this (micro) happiness is inextricably tied to (macro) social policies! We highly recommend Anu Partanen’s well-researched and engrossingly readable, The Nordic Theory of Everything: In Search of a Better Life. Partanen, a Finnish woman, marries a man from the U.S. and moves here. Wow! Is she in for a culture shock! In her book, Partanen brilliantly develops her primary thesis that if people in the U.S. really understood how absolutely awful our social policies were—in terms of tearing apart our social fabric, devastating families and community life, and generally contributing to declining health and well-being—we would be protesting in the streets (and, voting)!
From child-care, health care, elder care, parental leave, education, gender equity—really, every aspect of life—Partanen expertly and empathically delineates the dire consequences of U.S. social policies’ abject failure to function effectively in a contemporary society. She observes how “Americans tend to see their government and the services it provides as something separate from them, and often opposed to them. Nordic people see the government and its services as their own creation. The well-being state is from each of us, to each of us, and by each of us” (p. 236). Partanen doesn’t just critique the U.S. system, she offers pragmatic hope and models for the country she has come to love.
Seriously, just read the book!
