Are you happy? The correct answer is no. I got points for this in a high school philosophy session. Happy isn't something you are. It's something you pursue. You can't know if you've led a happy life until your life is ended and unless some of you reading this are dead, you don't know how that turned out. At least that's one approach to the answer.
The other approach is the Forbes magazine survey. Forbes asks survey respondents to rate how satisfied they are with their lives on a scale of 1 to 7. People on the 400 richest Americans list average a 5.8 while homeless people in Calcutta average 2.9. That much makes intuitive sense. But Inuit sense makes more sense. The Inuit people of Northern Greenland also average a 5.8 without the encumbrance of all that wealth. Cattle herding Masai in Kenya also average a 5.8. So if money can't buy happiness, what can? Before you answer, let's consult another periodical. The September issue of American City & County contains an article about the lack of new public works leadership talent coming forward for the low-paying, high-stress public works jobs in America. The article bemoans the fact that 72 percent of APWA members are over 40 and that there's a significant drop-off below that age in the number of people entering the profession. It concludes with the assertion that while not the path to riches, a public works career is a rewarding and noble service. We've been trying to put together an all-volunteer public works force. Maybe we need a draft for this noble service.
Maybe we don't. Maybe Father Robert Spitzer from Gonzaga has the answer. It's not really his answer but his book, "The Spirit of Leadership" explains how to find happiness in public service. He talks of the different levels of personal fulfillment starting with Immediate Gratification. At that level we desire pleasure and material possessions. That's not enough in America if you want to get all the way up to a 5.8 on the Forbes happiness scale because you need to go to the next level of personal achievement and be recognized as better than others. That's one of the reasons you're on the 400 wealthiest list. Well, not you but people you know of. The next level of satisfaction comes from finding the good beyond yourself and can only come through contributing to something beyond yourself. Sounds like public service to me. It also explains why the richest man in the world feels the need to give away a lot of money to make the world a better place. Public works officials make the world a better place every day. At least that's what we're supposed to be doing. Maybe we just haven't examined it from the perspective of personal fulfillment and contributing to society. We certainly don't have an ad agency touting the fulfilling sense of happiness that comes from a life in public works. We do have an ad agency that complains about how little we have in the way of resources to get the job done. There's a motto to encourage the new recruits. Doing more with less always struck me as another inspiring rallying cry. It seems that everything we talk about publicly is about how hard the job is and how under-appreciated it is. And I haven't event talked about money because we already found that you can be as happy as the world's wealthiest if you're willing to live in Greenland or Kenya. Or maybe Canada, I'm guessing that a 5.8 is 6.3 Canadian. But I digress. The point is that we need to spend more time focusing on the positive aspects of what we do and sharing that sense of accomplishment with the next wave of young leaders.
As usual, comments or questions can be fielded at ostrowj@pacifier.com