Industry is the Enemy of Melancholy

I was fortunate to retire from my traditional work career at the relatively young age of 56. Retiring early had become a goal of mine ever since I observed how much my father enjoyed his 30 year post-work life. My father was perfectly content to leave the working life behind and fill up his days with fishing, tending his vegetable garden, solving the daily crossword puzzle, taking naps and watching the home town Sports teams on his television.

When the time came for me to retire, I had an idyllic vision of spending my days in similar fashion. Finally, after 56 years, I was looking forward to being my own boss – thrilled to have the opportunity to wake up every day and do whatever it was that interested me. I believed that every day would feel like Christmas!

And those first few months of retirement really were magical. Gone was the stress of having to be available 24/7 to my company’s sales and management teams who were battling to close million dollar deals, gone was the daily 3 to 4 hour commute in bumper-to-bumper traffic, and gone was the chronic sleep deficit.

It was goodbye to all that. What replaced it was the pleasure of deciding which book to read from my list of “books I always wanted to read“, fly fishing in the beautiful rivers of New England, taking long rides on my electric bike, spending quality time with my grandkids, and attending stimulating concerts and plays with my wife.

Something begin to happen, however, that I was not expecting about six months into my retirement. As the novelty and thrill of being retired began to subside I began to notice that I was experiencing melancholy moods and moments of soul searching. I was spending time reflecting on topics like past loss, the certainty of my physical and mental decline, and the uncertainty of how future generations will deal with the big existential challenges the world is facing.

Without the rigors of work to occupy my attention, my mind was set free to wander where it wanted to go and to my surprise I discovered that it often wanted to contemplate dark and doleful topics. I was not that concerned about these sometime melancholy moods because I reasoned that it is one of life’s natural reactions to harbor feelings of both happiness and sadness; and I remembered the wise old grandmother who once said: “A good day is a laugh and a cry“. Still I wondered why my pensive thoughts were increasing in frequency at a time in my life when I expected to be most content.

Then I happened to read about a study conducted by Harvard psychologists Matthew A. Killingsworth and Daniel Gilbert which could help to explain the phenomenon I was experiencing. These researchers developed a smartphone app that allowed them to collect the thoughts, feelings, and actions of a broad range of people at random moments as they went about their daily activities.

Using the app, Killingsworth and Gilbert asked people what they were doing and how happy they were while doing it. They sifted through 25,000 responses from more than 5000 people and reported that 46% of the people were thinking about things other than what they were actually doing at the time (in other words, they were daydreaming about something other than what they were doing). They discovered that those people who were daydreaming typically were not happy; while those who were fully engaged in their activity were the happiest. 

The researchers wrote that unlike other animals, human beings spend a lot of time thinking about what is not going on around them, contemplating instead events that happened in the past, might happen in the future, or will never happen at all. This “stimulus-independent thought” or “mind wandering” appears to be the brain’s default mode of operation.

Although this ability is a remarkable evolutionary achievement that allows people to learn, reason, and plan, it apparently comes with an emotional cost. “We see evidence that a human mind is a wandering mind, and a wandering mind is an unhappy mind,” they said in their report. The bottom line is that we’re more likely to think negative thoughts when we let our minds wander.

Maybe that is why people who are waiting in line or stuck in traffic appear to be more irritable. And maybe my melancholy moods have increased in frequency since leaving work simply because my mind is no longer required to spend 10+ hours a day focused on the demands of my job.

This study confirms that many philosophical and religious traditions are on to something true when they teach that happiness is to be found by living in the moment, and by training their practitioners to resist mind wandering and concentrate on the here and now. Yoga teachers and those teaching meditation practices usually stress the importance of “mindfulness” or “being present” for a good reason — because when we do, it usually puts us in a better mood.

When I look back at my work career, I can see now that those moments when I felt most fulfilled was when I was in the middle of product development activities, being part of a team inventing electronic test solutions to solve complex manufacturing challenges. During those moments all the powers of my mind were fully engaged in solving the problem at hand and there was a sense that the results of the team’s collective work would have a positive impact on the company, our customers, and to a certain extent, society in general.

William F. Buckley put his finger on the unique ability that meaningful work has in preventing the onset of depressive feelings when he wrote “Industry is the enemy of Melancholy“. Simply put, if we are busy doing work that requires a focused mind it becomes difficult for the mind to wander and contemplate spirit dampening topics that are likely to cause the blues.

I happened to listen to an online homily about work that touched on a similar theme from a spiritual point of view that was given by Bishop Robert Barron. Bishop Barron made the point that our very being is deeply influenced by our actions and that the kind of work we do has a lot to do with the kind of people we become.

People who have no work usually struggle with depression because our sense of dignity often comes from work. Those who suffer from unemployment feel not just the financial burden of a lost paycheck, but also the loss of dignity brought about from the loss of their livelihood.

When you are feeling down one of the things psychologists recommend is to get to work on a project. It tends to make you feel better because work engages the powers of mind, will, creativity, and imagination and we become awakened when we give ourselves over to a project.

It doesn’t have to be a grand or complicated project. In fact, Bishop Barron mentioned that he found that one of the things that brings him the most satisfaction is doing the dishes. His day is usually filled with meetings and intellectual activities, so it is a relief for him to do some simple physical work at the end of the day. It brings him satisfaction to make order out of a dirty kitchen and to see everything clean and in its place when he is done.

The Bishop referenced this lyric from Bob Dylan’s song “Forever Young” to emphasize that work is a blessing and that souls can not fully prosper when their hands and feet are idle.

“May your hands always be busy, may your feet always be swift, may you have a strong foundation when the winds of changes shift”

Bob Dylan; Forever Young

Not all work is physical, though. Pope John Paul II categorized different kinds of work for the faithful. There is physical work (the work of the body), intellectual work (the work of the mind), spiritual work (the feeding of one’s soul), and moral work (charitable work on behalf of the poor and mistreated). When we are attentive to each of these categories of work in our daily life, it is then that we best fulfill our divine potential and become collaborators with the purpose of God.

I like that idea. May we all come to see our work, in all its different manifestations, as collaborating with the purpose of God and as bringing us into a more perfect union with a higher power.

“Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.”

Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston in 1705, the eighth of his parent’s ten children. Being one of the youngest in the household Ben had to learn important skills on how to get along with others – developing a quick wit that he used to help him defuse confrontations throughout his life.

Apprenticed by his father to his 21 year old brother for a term of 9 years when he was only 12, Ben learned the trade quickly, eventually surpassing the skills of his older brother. To escape from his indentured servitude contract Franklin ran away to Philadelphia when he was only 17 years old.

In Philadelphia Franklin was able to find steady work at a Printing shop. His work ethic earned the admiration of the Provincial Governor who encouraged him to start his own shop – even shipping him off to Britain with capital so he could purchase his own Printing equipment.

At the tender age of 20, Franklin sailed back to America using the 2 month sailing time as an opportunity to examine his life up until that point and formulating a plan of conduct to follow for the remainder of his life.

In his journal written during that voyage he chided himself for the irregularity of his past actions and vowed to prevent his life from becoming wasted on a confused variety of different scenes.

With that in mind he set about making certain resolutions to himself and putting in place a plan of action so that henceforth I may live in all respects like a rational creature. Franklin further identified in his journal, the thirteen virtues that he felt, when practiced, would reinforce those resolutions.

Benjamin Franklin’s Resolutions

1. It is necessary for me to be extremely frugal until such a time as I have paid off what I owe.
2. To endeavor to speak truth in every instance, to give nobody expectations that are not likely to be answered, but aim for sincerity in every word and action.
3. To apply myself industriously to whatever business I take in hand, and not divert my mind from my business by any foolish projects of growing suddenly rich; for industry and patience are the surest means of plenty.
4. I resolve to speak ill of no man whatever, not even in a matter of truth; but rather by some means excuse the fault I hear charged upon others, and upon proper occasions speak all the good I know of everybody.

Benjamin Franklin’s Virtues

1. Temperance: Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation
2. Silence: Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself, avoid trifling conversation
3. Order: Let all things have their place; let each part of your business have it’s time
4. Resolution: Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve
5. Frugality: Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; waste nothing
6. Industry: Lose no time. Be always employed in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions
7. Sincerity: Use no hurtful deceit, think innocently and justly
8. Justice: Wrong none by doing injuries or omitting the things that are your duty
9. Moderation: Avoid extremes, avoid resenting injuries as much as you think they deserve
10. Cleanliness: Tolerate no uncleanness in body, clothes or habitation
11. Tranquility: Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable
12. Chastity: Rarely practice sexual indulgence except for health or offspring; never to dullness, weakness or the injury of your own or another’s peace or reputation.
13. Humility: Imitate Jesus and Socrates.

Franklin’s original list of virtues stopped at 12, but he added the 13th item after one of his Quaker friends mentioned to him that his neighbors thought he exhibited too much pride.

With those resolutions and virtues in hand, Franklin began a program to integrate them into his daily life. He devised a chart based on a thirteen week rotation where each week he focused on mastering one of the virtues. He kept a scorecard at the end of each day to keep track of his success at making the virtues a habit.

Franklin eventually abandoned the exercise when he discovered that virtues are not so simply acquired. Still, he was proud of his plan of personal conduct and for making it the basis for his life’s conduct. In later years he judged that the mere attempt had made him a better and happier man than he would have been otherwise.

While reading about Franklin’s uncommon life in the book The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin by the historian H.W. Brands, I was astonished at the seriousness and resolution of mind exhibited by the 20 year old Ben Franklin.

Most 20 year old men and woman today are not busy formulating a plan of action for the conduct of their life or thinking about which virtues they ought to be practicing in order to achieve success in life.

I would guess that most 20 year old Americans today are more busy playing video games, binge watching television shows, obsessing over their social media presence or searching for ways to acquire the materialistic trappings of success without having to work too hard for them.

I know that at that age, I was thinking more about selfish pursuits like fraternity parties, girls and sports than I was thinking about the irregularity of my actions or my failure to live like a rational creature.

What is even more astonishing than Franklin’s display of maturity and seriousness of mind at such a young age is the incredible accomplishments he achieved throughout his life by following the principles behind those early resolutions and by being true to his virtues.

Courtesy of the Franklin Institute

One glance at the list of Benjamin Franklin’s accomplishments will make you wonder how it is possible for a single person to achieve so much, in so many different fields, in the short span of one human lifetime.

Benjamin Franklin’s Accomplishments

• Established the leading Printer business in the Colony of Pennsylvania eventually expanding his business to a second shop in South Carolina. Being the most successful printer in the Colonies he was essentially the Google of his day – owning a monopoly on the thoughts and opinions that got disseminated every day.
• Published the Philadelphia Gazette which became the most popular newspaper in the Province. He wrote most of the Opinion pieces using an alias and published the 1st political cartoon.
• Advocated for paper currency and became the Colony’s approved currency printer – designing a pattern that could not be counterfeited.
• Created Poor Richard’s Almanac – a popular yearly publication that charted the phases of the moon, weather, timing of the tides, farming information, calendar events, recipes, cures, and psychological advice. Franklin’s alter ego, Poor Richard, dispensed pearls of wisdom throughout the Almanac that quickly became staples of the American lexicon. Phrases like “Great talkers, Little doers“, “Hunger never saw bad bread“, “If you would keep your secret from an enemy, tell it not to a friend“, “There are no gains without pains” and “If you make yourself a sheep, the wolves will eat you“.
• Recruited a club of inquirers considered to have the best minds in the city and called them the “Junto”. The club met weekly to discuss moral, political, philosophical, literary and scientific matters. Franklin encouraged the club to focus on topics which would contribute most to the benefit of mankind and expanded on this concept when he became a founding member of the American Philosophical Society.
• Founded the country’s first Public Library at age 27.
• Following his philosophy that “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure“, he formed a volunteer collection of active men who were committed to combating fires. This group became the Union Fire Company, the first volunteer firefighters in America. To spare homeowners from the financial ruin of a fire he proposed the idea of Fire Insurance policies.
• Writing that “you can undertake nothing that will be more advantageous to your children, nor more acceptable to our country“, Franklin offered a plan to educate the children of Philadelphia free from the extraordinary expense and hazard of sending them away to private school. In effect, he became the first organizer of public schools as well as a primary founder of the University of Pennsylvania
• Invented an improved wood stove that kept houses significantly warmer and less sooty while requiring less than a quarter of the firewood of existing fireplaces. The Franklin stove quickly spread throughout the world because Franklin declined to patent it, letting anyone borrow its design and improve on it. He reasoned that he had profited from other people’s inventions, why should not others benefit from his.
• Appointed postmaster of Philadelphia by the British Crown Post in 1737, a post he held for 16 years. His effective measures led to the first profits for the colonial post office. In 1775, when the Second Continental Congress established the United States Post Office, Franklin was made the first Postmaster General due to his experience in the field.
• He was at the forefront in the field of the early studies of electricity. He performed experiments and wrote papers that described how electricity behaved and he invented an electric battery and a primitive electric motor. His work was honored by the world engineering societies and he was given the title of Doctor.
• Proved that lightning was associated with electricity. Franklin helped tame lightning by inventing the lightning rod which protected countless buildings from being struck and possibly destroyed by fire.
• The first to theorize that chronic exposure to lead was toxic. He suggested replacing lead coils used in distilleries with copper coils instead.
• Franklin suffered from poor eyesight as he aged which led him to invent bifocals, dual lens eyeglasses with the upper lens used for distance and the lower lens for reading.
• He was an early and ardent advocate of the health benefits of vigorous exercise and one of the first to recognize that Colds are not caused from being exposed to cold temperatures but rather by being exposed to one another’s respiration.
• Performed experiments underlying the principle of refrigeration. Noticing how evaporation of liquid can absorb heat, he theorized this was how trees cooled themselves and mitigated the effects of summer temperatures.
• Conjectured that earth’s core was fluid in nature and that the mountains and land masses were floating upon this fluid.
• Performed experiments during his many sailing trips, discovering that the Gulf stream was actually a river of warm water flowing over the colder body of the ocean.
• Recommended the building of double-hulled ships to reduce the chance of vessels sinking when they were in an accident.
• Presciently hit on a fundamental law of nature, the conservation of mass-energy, writing that we cannot destroy the energy confined in a piece of wood that is burned in a fire – we can only separate it from that which confines it and so set it at liberty.
• Invented a Rolling Press that could copy a letter in under two minutes.
• Invented swim fins, the musical instrument glass armonica, a flexible urinary catheter, his own version of the odometer, and the long arm – which he used to reach books in high shelves of his library.
• Even though he kept two slaves, Franklin viewed the institution of slavery as incompatible with justice and humanity. He became one of the first distinguished men in the country calling for the abolition of slavery – writing that the introduction of slaves could only diminish a nation.
• Franklin was an early British Loyalist and wanted America to avoid war with its Mother country, but he gradually came to believe in the cause of American Independence writing that “We are fighting for the dignity and happiness of human nature” .
• He served prominent Ambassadorial posts in Britain and France, representing the face of America to the European Continent throughout his career.
• During the American Revolution, Franklin played a pivotal role in convincing the French government to join the American cause and persuading them to provide crucial loans and naval assistance – which George Washington skillfully used to defeat the British.
• Contributed to and signed all the founding documents of the United States; including the Declaration of Independence, the Treaty of Paris, and the Constitution.
• At his death, he established the Franklin fund, a trust to benefit the two cities he loved, Boston and Philadelphia. The fund is still solvent today and continues to contribute to worthy causes.

Most people would consider their life successful if they had achieved just one of Benjamin Franklin’s long list of accomplishments. It is hard to think of any other American in the history of the country who has had comparable ambition and talent to pursue so many interests.

Benjamin Franklin was one who came as close as any to realizing the full potential of the human spirit, a one-of-a kind talent who had a significant and profound influence in the early development of his nation.

H.W Brand labels Franklin The First American because he believes that Franklin was the most important American who ever lived because more than any other person, he was responsible for defining the American way of life and he considers Franklin’s combined contributions to his country over the course of his lifetime greater than any other American citizen.

While reading about the life of Benjamin Franklin, I couldn’t help but wonder how many of his accomplishments had their roots in that original Plan of Conduct he devised at the tender age of 20. It seems like his prolific productivity and success would not have been possible unless he remained true to those early resolutions and virtues throughout his life.

It makes me wonder how much more productive I could have been with my life if I had diligently followed a similar plan of conduct. What good has remained undone in the world because, unlike Franklin, I have not spent my life in always being employed in something useful?

It is of some solace to me that many of Franklin’s most important contributions came in his old age. It gives me hope, as I am about to embark on my seventh decade of life, that it is still not too late for me to live more deliberately and strive with my remaining time to be someone who, as Franklin put it – either writes something worth reading or does something worth writing.

Benjamin Franklin died April 17, 1790; three months after his eighty-fourth birthday. It was estimated that half the population of Philadelphia turned out to mourn at his funeral. Messages of sympathy and respect poured in from dignitaries around the world honoring Franklin because he sought knowledge not just for his own sake but for all of humanity’s.

It seems fitting to close this blog with the epitaph that Benjamin Franklin drafted for his tombstone when he was only 22 years old. Wherever his Spirit happens to be, it is inspiring to believe that it is still living on somewhere in a new and more perfect edition.

The body of B. Franklin, Printer; Like the cover of an old book, It’s contents torn out, And stript of its Lettering and Gilding, Lies here, Food for worms. But the work shall not be wholly lost, For it will, as he believed, appear once more, In a new & more perfect Edition, Corrected and amended by the author.

Epitaph authored by Benjamin Franklin