COLUMN: Lottery woes and Norwegian stamina

Thank goodness a trio of lucky players finally won the $1.5 billion Powerball drawing so we can all get on with our lives. I’m not a gambler, but I succumbed to the office pool for the now historic largest lottery drawing in the world.

And, yes, I even bought some individual tickets. How could I not?

It was a fun diversion to think about how we could possibly ever spend that much money, especially during a gray and gloomy January. But here I am, still a working stiff like the millions of other big-money hopefuls whose dreams have now turned to reality.

Now we just have to get through the rest of January. The month is most certainly my low ebb of the year. Turns out, I may only need to summon my Norwegian heritage to make it until spring.

I read with interest a blog by Chris Matyszczyk (obviously he’s not a Norwegian) that is titled “The Secret to Being Mentally Strong May be Hidden in a Small Norwegian City.”

The article tells how Kari Leibowitz, a researcher from Stanford University, went to the small Norwegian town of Tromso, 200 miles north of the Arctic Circle, to see how folks there deal with winter. It’s an island of 70,000 tough souls who survive in a place where it’s completely dark for two months of the year.

What the researcher found was surprising to most: They weren’t miserable. In fact, they embrace winter and its dark days. What it boils down to is that it’s all about the mindset. Tromso residents don’t see winter as depressing because they look forward to skiing.

They’re also big fans of Koselig. No, it’s not a Norwegian pastry you’ve never heard of. It’s the practice of cuddling under warm blankets and “feeling cozy all over.”

Leibowitz summed up her study, saying “the results of our study in Norway found that having a positive wintertime mindset was associated with greater life satisfaction, willingness to pursue the challenges that lead to personal growth, and positive emotions.”

I’m wondering if mindset is something I might be able to cultivate, or whether my own Norwegian stamina has been too watered down by my American lifestyle, not to mention some Swedish blood, albeit a small amount, that flows through my veins.

Could I actually learn to love January, or winter, for that matter?

Matyszczyk doubts it’s possible, and humorously suggests these tough Tromsonians may be on intravenous alcohol drips.

“What possesses these Norwegian Jedi to have mind tricks that might defy many in the world?” he ponders.

We Norwegians are hearty folks, there’s no disputing that. The fact that so many Norwegian immigrants settled in Minnesota and other ice boxes of the country is perhaps all the evidence that’s needed about a positive mindset.

I’ll do my best to summon that mindset, but I know where the nearest hot tub is, just in case.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.