Yesterday we thought about joy in giving. How about joy in work? Here’s a story too good not to pass on in its entirety. It’s by Mike Kerrigan, an attorney in Charlotte, NC, published by the Wall Street Journal, September 12, 2024.

St. Bernard on the Hertz Shuttle

What we do isn’t nearly as important as how we do it.

I recently returned from vacation in Boulder, Colo. On the drive to Denver International Airport, my mind churned over many things to be done back at work, sensitive issues I uppishly felt that I alone could handle. Then I met Dave.

Dave Moller drove the shuttle bus that carried me from Hertz’s rental-car lot to the terminal. I might not have noticed him, but the whimsical song he was playing—“A Groovy Kind of Love” by the Mindbenders—broke my newsfeed’s gravitational pull.

Looking up from my iPhone was good fortune. It allowed me to see festive bunting reading “Cheers to 45” that adorned the bus cabin. Mr. Moller has driven airport shuttles for Hertz for 45 years, a fact he shared with pride moments later over the public address system.

The announcement drew applause. Humorous observations of a man comfortable with his place in the cosmos followed, making the journey pleasant. Based on how swiftly he moved luggage from bus to curb, Mr. Moller appeared to be as light of foot as of heart.

As his shuttle pulled away, a thought occurred to me. Mr. Moller had performed the morning’s repetitive tasks multiple times a day for more than four decades, yet still he did them with the purposefulness and lightheartedness of an applicant looking to land the job.

The admirable marriage of consistency and mirth got me thinking about this bus driver’s job, and the one to which I was returning. All things being equal, work done joylessly is work done less effectively, for nothing ever happens in a vacuum.

Someone is always watching, whether it’s an office colleague or a bus passenger, and influenced accordingly. This means that whatever a man’s vocation in life happens to be, what he does is scarcely more important than how he does it.

This is so especially after considering a timeless self-inquiry attributed to St. Bernard of Clairvaux: Quid hoc ad aeternitatem, or what does it matter in light of eternity? Asking this frequently of oneself reminds that all earthly tasks, from bus driving to lawyering, are comparatively small. All that matters in the end is the love with which we do them.

Deep in his bones Mr. Moller seems to understand this. Perhaps that is why he has stayed in the same happy seat for 45 years. (Emphases mine)

Kudos to Dave Moller, the bus driver. Kudos to Mike Kerrigan, the attorney, for noticing and sharing.

After looking at the way things are on this earth, here’s what I’ve decided is the best way to live: Take care of yourself, have a good time, and make the most of whatever job you have for as long as God gives you life…Yes, we should make the most of what God gives, both the bounty and the capacity to enjoy it, accepting what’s given and delighting in the work. It’s God’s gift! God deals out joy in the present, the now…(Ecclesiastes 5.18 – 20, MSG)