The work we choose often has a lot more to do with filling a financial or otherwise practical need (like health insurance, daycare, etc) than it does intrinsic value or personal satisfaction. At least in my exposure to this world, most people work because they have to work, and they stay in unhappy jobs because those jobs pay big bills. Sometimes, though, life is blessed with a job that serves up both a paycheck and a personal reward. Such is the case for us right now, thank you Lord.
In describing my husband’s work I will inevitably reveal my wide-spilling ignorance, sorry Handsome, but hopefully the basic truths are here. He does good stuff, man. Together with some incredibly hard working people at the State of Oklahoma, he has his capable hands in the goings on of our public utility services. They not only regulate prices and tariffs (laws) but they also spur education, efficiency reform, job enrichment, and the overall strength and futures of the industries they regulate . And that’s just HERE!
Did you know, fellow Okies, that our state is a global hub for natural gas capture and delivery? We set the standards, baby. There are countries all over the Eastern hemisphere where homes and businesses are just now beginning to receive gas piped in for heating, cooking etc. Right this minute a woman in an opposite time zone from here is excited that soon she’ll be able to turn on her interior stove and cook dinner for her family then run hot baths, rather than have propane hauled through town on a donkey. That sounds a bit Susanne-Struthersy, but it’s just true. And who is helping these countries establish brand spankin-new systems? Our Great State.
People are amazingly capable of great things. The unseen systems of our modern world are just fascinating, from ground level production and deliveries to fluorescent-light conference rooms and courtrooms, I doubt we’ll ever know all of it, all these systems, all the businesses of human effort that make daily life so comfy.
Hug your civil servant today. Or…pat him on the posterior if you think you can get away with it… I just did.