Asher Joseph photos
These splash pad kiddos appear to be missing out on the virtues of stress.
Today, I’d like to add a little to your stress level. But I believe in the end you’ll be grateful. Perhaps.
My intent relates to a report this week from WalletHub, a personal finance website, that measures stress levels of life in 181 American cities. To be in the top of the ranking, a metro area has to qualify as an especially annoying place to reside.
So here’s the really good news. New Haven is not among the top 39 cities to be held in such low esteem. This, according to rankings of stress caused in the workplace, financial pressure, family issues, or health and safety concerns. Yay for us.
The not so good news? We can’t be sure we’re all getting enough stress.
Psychology Today, quoted in WalletHub’s press release, apparently is in favor of a person enjoying a measure of anxiety.
“A little bit of stress – called acute stress — can be exciting, It keeps us active and alert.” As long as it doesn’t become “chronic” stress, which we all know, psychology degree hung on our walls or not, is beyond irritating.
Hence, what are we to make of our fair city’s #40 ranking? Are we getting enough stress to stay healthy and active and sane and useful members of society, or too much? Depends, of course, on the person you ask.
More not so terrific news: Many cities with worse images than New Haven are, according to WalletHub, better places than ours to live.
Among these are Buffalo (where residents say the climate is confined to only two seasons, winter and July 4th); Phoenix (where this week’s high temperature, rounded off to the nearest 100 degrees, is about a billion Fahrenheit); San Francisco, where homeless people may soon run for mayor; as well as Connecticut’s largest city, Bridgeport, which Mark Twain’s protagonist in “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court,” mistook for Camelot, but, given the chance nowadays, might decline to declare it so.
(Note to readers: The above paragraphs complete my attempt to pass along useful information. What follows here may correctly be considered a personal diatribe.)
What city do you suppose ranks #1 in WalletHub’s version ranking of mental terribleness?
Hint: It is the city built on land that once belonged to Connecticut. Another hint, which I admit may be unhelpful to you: I was born there. A third hint: In the 1950s, a wag on local television there skewered the town’s unofficial slogan, “The Best Location in the Nation,” by pointing out that if that was so, Honolulu might easily come in second.
Those of you who have so often stuck your noses into American history books that you are addicted to the fumes are already aware of the name of the exploits of a native of our state by the name of Moses Cleaveland.
It was he, as president of the Connecticut Company in late 18th century, who apparently didn’t mind when the city he founded thoughtlessly banished one letter from his last name, the story goes, just so it could fit in the banner of the newspaper.
So, here’s how I am left to assess my life according to city stress level. While it’s true I have improved my situation from going, eventually, from #1 all the way down to #39, I still have the emotional scars of my decade in #15, Akron, Ohio, though I surely must have improved my outlook during the urban riots, fires, Cuban boatlift and skyrocketing crime during my years in #50, Miami.
(Another note to readers: For the sake of my present stress level, I will not include in my assessment the year I spent in the late 1960s in the city of Tuy Hoa, in Vietnam, where there was a fair amount of bothersome stuff going on.)
I recently returned to Cleveland, Ohio, where my old high school’s alumni association gave me an award titled, I think, “Grad Who Slightly Exceeded the Very Low Expectations His Teachers Had for Him.”
And there for a few days, in the fine environs of my hometown, I reveled in the healthy stress of life as a fan of the Cleveland Indians – oops, Guardians – because, thank the gods of baseball, I have never had to deal with the needless stress of winning a World Series title.
If that isn’t evidence of the folly of such rankings, I don’t know what is.