Happiness

I just returned from a 10 day trip, with my wife Jamie, along the coast of Maine. Our first visit to the state.

In the final days of our stay I remarked that every Mainer we encountered just seemed so…nice.

“I think they’re just happy,” Jamie said.

And that was it.

Folks just seemed happy.

Not in a we’re-ignoring-the-batshit-goings-on around us kind of way, but in a way that seems to allow two things to be true. We can be happy and share some joy as we connect with others. And we can simultaneously act in ways that explicitly demonstrate our best values (embracing diversity, respecting our history and past, opening new understanding) while also openly resisting the opposite (divisiveness, white-washing history, censorship).

Let me give a couple of examples of demonstrating our best values while simultaneously resisting.

The Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland, Maine had an exhibit called Re-Indeginizing Sacred Landscapes. It was co-curated by museum staff with cultural leaders from the Penobscot and Passamaquoddy nations. They took a selection of grand landscape paintings from the museum’s collection – all painted by white artists of European descent – but displayed them with accompanying stories and context about each location’s meaning and significance to the indigenous tribes. You see and understand the landscapes differently.

The Coastal Maine Botanical Garden also paid open respect to the indigenous peoples of the region, and integrated that respect via displays and artwork throughout the garden. Their scientific efforts to preserve and re-energize native plants is built upon a simple definition of what they mean by “native:” Plants that were here before the Europeans arrived. A quiet but powerful nod to the impact of colonization.

We also felt this best values/resistance experience via the prevalence of all-gender bathrooms (in places you might not expect), the “Maine welcomes all” signs, and the diversity of folks and lifestyles working and living in the same community.

I am certain not all of Maine fits the perception I’ve created here.

But folks we encountered during our trip truly did seem to be consistently happy in a noticeable way. It made me realize that we can hold space for happiness, while at the same time living an unwavering resistance.

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The photo (above) was taken by me. It is not Evanston, Il. – my usual scene accompanying these posts. It is Boothbay Harbor, Maine. Thanks for the joy, Maine.