Opinions Column: Americans can learn a lot about living from Europeans

The diet common to countries like Spain, Italy and Greece is based on plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables, wheat and other cereals, olive oil, fish and red wine.

The diet is supposed to make us live longer because it is low in saturated fat and high in monounsaturated fat and fiber.

Well, I have some news for the scientists: It ain’t the diet.

It’s the lifestyle.

Americans move too fast, are too stressed, are in too big of a hurry. We rush here, rush there, seldom taking the time to enjoy what we work so hard to achieve.

Our drive has had some advantages. America is a technological and economic marvel. We built a country from scratch and in a couple of hundred years have created great cities, crisscrossed the country first with rail then with highways. We put a man on the moon and invented more marvels than anyone can list.

We have greater freedom and more opportunity than any country in the world.

So we naturally assume we do everything better.

But that’s not so. Although our new world has surpassed the old world in most ways, they can still teach us a thing or two.

Mostly about enjoying life.

If you want to know about living well, even on a pittance, go to the Mediterranean countries (and a few beyond.) Spain, Greece, Italy, Portugal, France.

Take the lovely tradition of siesta.

Though most often associated with Spain, the siesta in one form or another is common in many Mediterranean countries, as well as in Latin America and some Pacific Rim nations.

The idea is that you work until lunchtime, then take a three or four hour break for a leisurely lunch, time with friends and family and, if you so desire, a brief nap.

You then return to work rested and refreshed and carry on until 7 or 8 p.m.

Compare that to the American custom of working through lunch or wolfing down a fast-food burger with one eye on the clock so as not to be even a minute late returning to the job.

Which one sounds better?

Lunch is an important meal in Southern Europe. But then all meals are important.

Eating isn’t just for the nourishment of the body, but for the mind and spirit.

Dining alone is considered not only suspect, but downright unhealthy. Families, extended families, friends and sometimes total strangers will be asked to lunch or dinner, whether at home or in a restaurant.

And meals are not to be rushed. You eat a little, drink a bit more, talk, laugh, sing, enjoy. A lunch or dinner can last an hour or two or three or more.

And then you don’t rush off. You talk some more, relax, have some more wine.

The meals need not be fancy. Joy can just as easily come from simple food prepared well and enjoyed in good company as from the richest of feasts served in the best restaurants. But the food is fresh, eaten in season, as it is supposed to be.

We Americans have the stereotype of the hot-headed Spaniard, Italian or Greek arguing endlessly over every minor issue. And while there is some truth to that, the greater truth is that most things that send Americans into a rage cause little or no concern in the Old World.

One expects life to move at a slower pace. One expects delays. One appreciates them, after a while.

The Spanish word manana, for example. We think it means “tomorrow.” And sometimes it does.

But if you ask anyone from a tradesman to a businessman to a government functionary when some job will be completed, you may well be told “manana.”

Don’t think that literally means “tomorrow.”

It means it will get done when it gets done, maybe tomorrow if I have time, maybe next week, maybe sometime before the next millennium.

I lived in Spain for a couple of years. And yes, it can be frustrating when you realize that you can’t have what you want, when you want it, all the time like in the U.S.

And it can be frustrating when you realize that those around you don’t particularly care that you’re frustrated about it.

At least at first. Until you “get it” and begin to slow down and enjoy life as they do. To focus on what’s really important to a happy life and let go of things that only seem to be.

Spain, Italy, Greece and other Mediterranean nations may not have the economic prosperity we have.

But the lifestyle? Sweet.

We can learn a lot about living from our neighbors in the Old World. But maybe one day we’ll come to understand the virtues of slowing down and appreciating the world just as they have.

After all, they were once in a hurry and built great civilizations full of wonders too—a thousand years ago.

Just give us a few hundred years.