A life well-lived

VIRTUAL REALITY

- TONY LOPEZ

What makes a life well-lived or flourishing? Major answers: pray or go to church at least once a week. Have a trusting and loving relationship with your family. Connect with and enjoy social groups, preferably a religious group. Do something good for other people.

GDP is not a good measure of a well-meaning life. Japan is a rich country but the Japanese have a less meaningful life than say the people of Argentina, Brazil, Mexico and the Philippines, all Catholic countries.

Harvard, Baylor University of Texas and Gallup are doing a five-year Global Flourishing Study (GFS) involving 202,898 participants (98,411 males, 103,488 females) from 23 countries or territories representing more than half of the globe. The Philippines has 5,292 participants, 2.6 percent of the total; US 38,312 participants, 19 percent.

The GFS initial findings: "Regular participation in group activities, whether religious or civic, is generally associated with greater flourishing. In countries like the Philippines and Türkiye, the positive relationship between flourishing and religious service attendance is stronger than that between flourishing and civic participation. Meanwhile, in countries like Spain and Germany, religious and civic engagement are similarly associated with greater flourishing."

We did very well in the GFS Flourishing Index (zero is absence of flourishing; 10 is comprehensive attainment). The Philippines is third best in having people with a meaningful life, with an 8.17 score, after Indonesia (8.47) and Mexico (8.19). The lowest scores were those of Japan (5.93), Türkiye (6.59) and UK (6.88).

The GFS was done in 2023 with 2,300 Filipinos representing the country. So you can conclude life under President Marcos Jr. has been meaningful.