In the late 18th Century, before our time, my ancestors mostly lived in small villages across Scotland. They would have worked within walking distance of their homes and shopped for anything they didn't grow or produce themselves at the local village shops.
Their work/sleep/shop triangle would have been very small and therefore, according to Robert D. Putnam, author of Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community (2000) they were happier than if they had a large triangle between those points.
Putnam, who is a Harvard political scientist and Professor of Public Policy, is credited with the 'Triangle of Happiness' theory.
Putnam likes to imagine that there is a triangle, its points comprising where you sleep, where you work, and where you shop. In a canonical English village, or in a university town, the sides of that triangle are very short: a five-minute walk from one point to the next. In many American cities, you can spend an hour or two travelling each side. “You live in Pasadena, work in North Hollywood, shop in the Valley,” Putnam said. “Where is your community?” The smaller the triangle, the happier the human, as long as there is social interaction to be had. In that kind of life, you have a small refrigerator, because you can get to the store quickly and often. By this logic, the bigger the refrigerator, the lonelier the soul.
'There and Back Again.The soul of the commuter' by Nick Paumgarten. New Yorker, April 16 2007
Putnam points out however, that a small triangle equals a happier human only when social interaction is also involved. Reducing your triangle to one of working from your bedroom and ordering all the groceries on-line for delivery would be counter-productive to your happiness!
My local shops are walking distance, but getting to and from my workplace and my kids' school (and their various after-school activities) requires the car. Some days my life as a chauffeur looks more like the Oblong of Exasperation than the Triangle of Happiness, but that is the reality of the life we have chosen to lead, and the key is to minimise the angst of the time spent in the car.
I've tried a number of ways of making time in the car productive - listening to audio books, brushing up on a foreign language using audio programs and if the children are in the car, using the time to talk about their days. The most enjoyable activity when it's just me however, is to ensure the car radio is on a quality (usually ABC) talk radio station so that my time in the car is informative and/or entertaining.
My 'commute' is under 10 kilometres, which is not much at all. However, a recent Federal Government report Population Growth, Jobs Growth and Commuting Flows in Melbourne, predicted ''an increase in journeys to work involving a road distance of more than 30 kilometres and an increase in the average commuting distance'' as the city is expected to add another million residents by 2025.
That's a really large Triangle of Happiness/Unhappiness for a significant proportion of our city's population, and the challenge ahead will be to try to create more jobs on the outskirts of the city - thereby reducing the size of those triangles.
What geometric shape is your work/sleep/shop life in?
5 comments:
All within half a km. I must be the happiest person on Earth!
I began life with a small triangle. It grew with senior school and teenage activities but that was fun and good exercise as it involved a great deal of walking which we regarded as more "talking time" and so didn't mind. HofNanu began with a tiny triangle which became very large indeed while he was still quite young much of which caused stress. From these quite different perspectives, however, when we became a family with young children we decided thet the boring essentials (work, school, shopping) had to have as small a trangle as possible, although we didn't think of it like that at the time, but, that the fun parts of life could spread big. This worked well. Boring journeys were a mere few minutes and fun ones longer to enjoy. That philosophy was well repaid many years later when SonofNanu remarked, "We're really well placed here". I thought of all the people we knew who had rather looked down on us because we hadn't moved into a Sussex village which was the thing to do in Brighton, England in the 1970's. By that time they were moving back into town as their lives were spent providing a taxi service for their teenage children! But you can only do what your circumstances let you do. I do know that I would have hated to do a long commute which many people have to do and some choose to do.
Mine is more like a spot at the moment - stuck in the house most of the time with my convalescent (I hope) elderly mother.
And I'm not the happiest person on earth at the moment, but we knew that, because that's Frogdancer.
Two sides of the triangle are wonderful here in the mountains. It is the "work" side that is rotten.
So we are moving back to the city as you know - and the triangle will be much better.
I loved reading this then and I love revisiting it now - thankyou! I wonder who my comment will come up as?
I agree with the article and have already noticed good "back to roots" changes in my community, more self-sufficiency and less harried in the last year or so. For an introvert like myself, it's been interesting and i've had to refrain from commenting on extroverted posts "now you know how we felt every day of your old life" ( but only the really extroverted me me me types :D ).
I have to say Nano's comments struck hard. My husband grew up in one suburb and gradually added extra and I feel that was a happier life, and the one we created for our kids. I had quite a few homes and lived in different towns, different states even, and I felt this stunted my ability to trust and grow, why make friends only to have them taken from you in the middle of the night?
It's funny though, despite staying small, I do prefer the smallness-yet-privacy of a bigger city, rather than the enforced intimacy of a small town, despite loving the romantic concept.
Anyway, thankyou for the chance to muse x
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