deliriouslove1970. The life & times of Gary and Denise Flanders. (Free and worth every penny. If you would like to compliment the editor, send to garytheflan@deliriouslove1970.com. If you would like to complain, call your mother.)

The land of the Thunder Dragon: Bhutan. The yellow on the top stands for the civil government (a monarchy) and the orange represents Buddhism. The white dragon, white for purity, is the national symbol. The flag was officially adopted in 1965.

This is one of my flags that I obtained simply because it looks great, and it is different. Upon finding out more about Bhutan I found a number of fascinating facts about this land locked country in Asia.

Despite it close proximity to major powers in Asia, Bhutan has been independent for it’s entire life. India/British empire andChina have never colonized Bhutan. In Colorado we were always proud of being the state with the most ‘14ers’. Bhutan has the most ‘24ers’ in the world. It is a monarchy, but the parliament can ‘impeach’ a king with a 2/3 vote.

Aha, the thing I like most about Bhutan is that in 1979 King Jigme Singye Wangchuck declared that the most important thing to his nation was what he called: “Gross National Happiness”.

Here in the US, with our national religion being Capitalism, we meticulously measure what we are worth by obsessing over our GNP. We compare ourselves to the rest of the world by looking at GNP. Not Bhutan. The United Nations recognized what a difference there was between Bhutan and the rest of the world, and in 2011 the General Assembly stated that the rest of the world should be more like Bhutan and learn how to measure happiness.

So, that is why the flag of Bhutan is flying today. They have the reputation of being the ‘Happiest Nation in the World’. We could all do well to measure happiness.