Nat

Another great piece in The New Yorker describes the effects on people with long commutes. The article characterizes people who travel 90 minutes or more each direction as “extreme commuters.” Under this definition, I am just under the limit, thanks to my company’s moving 20 minutes closer to my house last year.

In a nutshell, the article quotes research by several social scientists, which asserts that most long-distance commuters eventually suffer from social isolation for two basic reasons: first, the time they spend commuting is time they can’t spend socializing with their friends, and second, if where a person lives, works, and shops are too far from one another, it’s harder to establish a single community.

The article also points out that humans tend to have a hard time comparing the relative advantages and disadvantages of the material things we gain from a job and the more intangible costs the job inflicts. So we don’t know how to make a healthier emotional choice.

The article made me really sad and anxious, because I’ve been feeling after 10 years commuting more than 30,000 miles a year that I can’t bear to do it any more. Sometimes I think it’s less painful to be ignorant of the imperfections in one’s life, and today, I realized I didn’t want to ignore this frustration any more.

The author also stated that most people stick with a difficult commute not because they love the job, but because they either don’t see an option or don’t have the energy to pursue one. I want to find the energy to have options. Don’t we all?

What’s your secret for storing up that energy?