words of wanderlust...

On occasion, I used to post passages from books I read. One is resonating tonight that I thought I'd share, from The Geography of Bliss, which I recently completed.

One way Americans pursue happiness is by physically moving. Indeed, ours is a nation founded on restlessness. What were the pilgrims if not hedonic refugees, searching for happiness someplace else? And what is our much-heralded "frontier spirit" if not a yearning for a happier place? "In American, getting on in the world means getting out of the world we have known before," wrote the editor and teacher Ellery Sedgwick in his autobiography, The Happy Profession.

As I type my sister and her husband are apartment hunting in Lausanne, Switzerland, where they will move in January. Lucky for them, Switzerland ranks high in happiness.