How we define success has much to do with happiness

Am I the only person who wishes that legislation not be cobbled together as if the writers were performing in a play that everyone is invited to see and hear?

Not only do I not want to see "the sausage being made," as the saying goes, but I am not all that interested in even knowing that someone is making that sausage. I have not engaged all that much with the Build Back Better bill and the endless compromises and cuts and new revenue and Senate machinations involved, but I would bet I have paid more attention to the process that the vast majority of Americans.

And I know nothing.

When legislators are debating spending and income that runs into the trillions, that should summon our attention. But human brains tend to count like this: one, two, three, four, many... We need analogies to even imagine most numbers and sizes. 

Hail tends to make the news at pea-sized to golf ball-sized. A wind turban produces enough electricity to power x number of households. It would take x years for a space craft to reach another planet outside our system. 

We can garner fleeting attention by exaggerating some comparisons -- "big as a house," or "without a brain in his head." 

I am aware at some level that cutting or adding a few billion dollars to a bill will have real consequences for some people or areas or industries, but I mostly think that I honestly have no idea about how directly x dollars invested produces y amount of benefits.

I write all sorts of comments on student writing through some course management software. I would estimate that I invest at least ten minutes reading and commenting on even a short essay or discussion post. As for the payoff? I have no idea if students are a) bothering to read the comments, or b) making sense of what I hurriedly write, or c) care about anything beyond how many points were earned.

Yet I continue to make that investment.

The large budget bills being hammered out may elicit similar responses from government. Sometimes we just need to do what we think is right and hope that the reach of our efforts will be worthwhile.

Government supported a near-miraculous vaccine to help the world deal with Covid, but a significant percentage of the world either can't access the vaccine or actively refuses it.

I asked a recent student group about how they will measure success in their media program this school year. I asked the young journalists if the girls basketball team at their school would count having 50 students out of 2,000 attend one of their games as a "success." After all, during the pandemic many teams played in front of zero fans. But they still played.

Government will not make everyone happy, and social media (media in general) prefers to share counter-arguments over gushing praise. 

I want to believe that, overall, government is at least trying.