Recently Paul and I spent a day in the happiest place on earth. Yes, it was Disney land, and yes, we were happy, and as far as I could see, so was everyone else there. As we stood in line, we watched families, friends, and couples, all cheerily talking and laughing. We squealed with everyone else on the Matterhorn and ooh-ed and ah-ed on the Peter Pan ride. We savored beignets and churros. We chatted with total strangers who were just happy to be there and even seemed happy to be there with us.
Why shouldn’t we be happy? The whole park had been created to delight us. Even the easy-to- overlook coat of arms on Mr. Toad’s ride delighted us with the motto Semper Absurda. The story book canal took us through miniature villages so detailed I wanted to call out “stop the boat! I need to more time to look!” Those beignets were not only delicious, but they were shaped just like Mickey. Who wouldn’t smile at that?
And then the employees, ahem, “the cast” of workers all did everything they could to help us to be happy. Every time I was lost (and it was often) I just stopped a helpful employee—a kiosk salesgirl, or a custodian emptying the trash, or just a random employee walking across the park. They always seemed delighted to be asked to help and never made me feel stupid. “Oh, I know it’s easy to get lost here,” they would smile. Then they would point me in the right direction, or even walk with me to find it. If I went to the wrong window to pick up my food, an employee smiled and said, “Oh, it is a little confusing. Just go right over there!”
Making money did not seem to be the main purpose of the employees--making happiness was. When I bought Minnie Mouse ears, the girl cut off the price tag, but wrapped another long tag around the headband and taped it tight. I said, “Oh, you can just cut that off too.” She replied with a smile, “But if I do that, you can’t return it.” Wait, what? Did she just say that I could return the ears after wearing them, maybe all day?
But probably the most important reason for our happiness at Disneyland was that we WANTED to be happy. We had planned for this day, saved money, asked friends for advice, cruised the web searching for tips, downloaded the app, bought the cute Disney clothes—after all that investment, we were not going to blow the day by being cranky. So, when something went wrong, we laughed. When the line was long, we played games. When we were hungry, we ate. It’s just one day. We can be happy for one day (or three or five if you splurged on the longer pass).
But what if we want to be happy at home, maybe every day? Can we use the Disney magic to help with that? Now I’m talking about everyday kind of days. If we are facing real tragedy—divorce, disaster, death ---that is not what we are talking about here. But what about an ordinary day, a day when you might be tired or frustrated or cranky. Can we apply Disney magic to those days?
Well, we can be like Disney and look at our surroundings. Think about what makes you happy or what keeps you from feeling happy. Dirty dishes in the sink get you down? Then wash them. Rushing around like crazy in the morning? If it makes you unhappy, change your schedule so there is time for a peaceful morning. Don’t like your front door? Paint it.
In other words, if anything surrounding you is impacting you negatively, identify the problem and try to fix it. This will take some work, but, hey—you put all that work into the Disney vacay, you can do this too.
Here’s another idea. We can be like Disney and be delighted help others. Just like your mom said, “When we’re helping, we’re happy.” Maybe, like the Disney cast, if someone asks a stupid question, I can just say, “It’s easy to be confused about that.” Maybe, if someone needs help, I can pitch in and help with a smile.
And then, maybe most important, we can want to be happy--want it enough to put in the effort, to take responsibility for our own happiness, to put on smile and let that smile be real.
All that I’m saying here is, just think of the effort you would put into having a happy day at Disneyland. And then consider putting something like that effort into having a happy day on any normal day in your life. What would you do? What could you do?
At the end of our Disney day, as we walked out of Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway into the dusk of ToonTown, we came upon a little square of artificial turf. There on the turf were children, toddlers, parents—all chasing and laughing and tickling.
That moment of chasing and giggling and tickling was not created by Disney magic. It was created by families who decided to be happy. Maybe we don’t need Disney to be happy. We just need to decide.
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