The Gallup Poll has ranked the 50 states on the total well-being of their residents.

They based their ranking on 178,000 interviews conducted in 2013 with adults all over America. The interviews asked about six things: how people evaluate their lives, emotional health, work environment, physical health, healthy behaviors and access to healthcare.

By Gallup’s reckoning, I should be very, very unhappy. I have spent my whole life moving from one miserable place to another.

All but two of my nearly 70 years have been spent in one or another of America’s most miserable states: 12 years in West Virginia (ranked 50th), 18 years in Kentucky (49th), 13 years in Alabama (47th), 10 years in Ohio (46th), three years in Tennessee (44th), and 11 years in Missouri (43rd). The only state I’ve never set foot in, North Dakota, ranked number one in well-being.

But I’m happy. Every morning when I awake, I say “Thank you.” How can I be so happy if I’ve lived in such miserable places?

You can of course question the polling methods. I haven’t seen the questions the Gallup people asked, but I note some huge shifts between the 2012 and the 2013 rankings. Nevada, for example, rose from 39th in 2012 to 26th in 2013, while Wyoming plummeted from 13th to 34th. And North Dakota was 19th in 2012 before soaring to the top of the list in 2013. Can things have changed that much in just 12 months? This suggests some arbitrariness in the Gallup methods.

What makes for “well-being,” anyway? The six things the Gallup organization asked about are surely part of it, and it’s true that Alabama ranks way down at the bottom in average annual income, educational attainment, health and care of our environment. Our tortuous state constitution, good-ol’-boy politics and regressive tax code keep us near the bottom. That means many of our people have, shall we say, well-being problems. But is that all there is to happiness?

No, it’s not. There’s more.

I once visited two 90-year-old patients in a Baldwin County nursing home. Both were in failing health, rather like the state of Alabama. The first complained of everything. The nurses were surly and didn’t answer her pages. The food was bland and cold. Her room was stuffy. No one visited her. Her doctor didn’t listen to her. Television bored her. And of course there were her various aches.

The other resident, in virtually identical circumstances, could not have sounded happier. Her nurses looked in on her regularly. They brought her three meals a day and adjusted the thermostat and ventilation in her room. Friends telephoned now and then, and the parish newsletter helped her keep up with things. Her doctor was busy but attentive. Television was such a blessing; she wondered how elderly people ever managed without it. As for her aches, I suppose she had them, but she declined to discuss them.

How could two people in such similar circumstances have such opposite attitudes? Their life experiences and genetics may have been part of it, but some of it was a choice. One woman chose happiness and the other chose unhappiness.

You can be happy almost anywhere. Alabama suits me fine. I chose to return here in my retirement because I love so many people here, and if I were making the choice again, I’d still choose Alabama.

Every place has its problems, no life lacks for setbacks, and the end of life in particular can be trying. But I have learned to be content. I choose happiness.

If I don’t like something and can’t do anything about it, I accept it.

I exercise daily and try to eat right so as to minimize my health problems, but when some part of me stops working right (as it often does at this age), I learn to cope.

I’ve stopped listening to A.M. talk radio because everybody there seems angry and I don’t want to be angry.

I do what I can to help our state overcome its deficiencies, and when the obstacles seem daunting, I keep trying and I still find reasons to say “Thank you” every morning.

Richard H. Schmidt is a retired Episcopal priest, editor and author who lives in Fairhope. He can be reached at courier@gulfcoastnewspapers.com.