Molly Young

Or why, if a crosswalk light is red, Finn will wait until the light blinks green to cross, even if there is zero oncoming traffic in either direction. On and on I complained to my friend on the phone, wretched about the idea that my daughter would never eat vegetables alone in a library or paint northern lights on a fairytale wall beneath an indoor tree.

Or why, if a crosswalk light is red, Finn will wait until the light blinks green to cross, even if there is zero oncoming traffic in either direction. On and on I complained to my friend on the phone, wretched about the idea that my daughter would never eat vegetables alone in a library or paint northern lights on a fairytale wall beneath an indoor tree.

True, said my friend, but there are worse places to raise a kid than in the United States. She was correct. Romania, Kosovo, and Estonia among them, at least according to the World Happiness Report, a week-long fixation on the Cantro ladder was warping any sense of proportion.

True, said my friend, but there are worse places to raise a kid than in the United States. She was correct. Romania, Kosovo, and Estonia among them, at least according to the World Happiness Report, a week-long fixation on the Cantro ladder was warping any sense of proportion.

The next day, I departed the most life-satisfied country on earth in a thin-air plane that hiccuped queasily until it reached cruising altitude. What awaited me back in New York? First, there would be the airport taxi line, a reliable case study in misanthropy. Then a slow journey home on potholed expressways to an apartment with holes in the floor. Medical bills, daycare bills.

The next day, I departed the most life-satisfied country on earth in a thin-air plane that hiccuped queasily until it reached cruising altitude. What awaited me back in New York? First, there would be the airport taxi line, a reliable case study in misanthropy. Then a slow journey home on potholed expressways to an apartment with holes in the floor. Medical bills, daycare bills.

On the other hand, large coffee cups. All tourism starts out as happiness tourism. There are other words we use when we travel to visit family, conduct business, or elude capture, even if it mutates into a voyage of morbid introspection. During that first meeting with Mikko Tierenen, I posed to him the cantroladder question. Like every Finn I would go on to ask, he refused to indulge its premise.

On the other hand, large coffee cups. All tourism starts out as happiness tourism. There are other words we use when we travel to visit family, conduct business, or elude capture, even if it mutates into a voyage of morbid introspection. During that first meeting with Mikko Tierenen, I posed to him the cantroladder question. Like every Finn I would go on to ask, he refused to indulge its premise.

"'How would I know the answer?' Tierenen said." I'm only having this one life. No ladder, no top, and no bottom. There was darkness, now something is happening, and I'm confused, and then there will be darkness again.

"'How would I know the answer?' Tierenen said." I'm only having this one life. No ladder, no top, and no bottom. There was darkness, now something is happening, and I'm confused, and then there will be darkness again.