Following the greener grass

We live right on a main road in our town. It's a state-owned road that connects our town with other towns. Sometimes it is hard to get out of our driveway and this morning it was really bad. Long lines of cars were coming in both directions so I had time to think (or to get mad - but I chose to think about it). I wondered if all of these people were going to work. If they were, it meant that a lot of people from other towns were coming to work in our town and a lot of people from our town were going to work in other towns (myself included). Why is this? I could see if one town or the other was a bad place to live but had a lot of jobs. Then it would make sense that everyone would want to live in the good town and work in the town with all the jobs. But people were going both ways. So, maybe it's a "grass is always greener" sort of thing. The jobs always look better in the other town but when you're at work, the living always looks better in the town that doesn't have your job. The Bible calls it envy.

"Then I observed that most people are motivated to success because they envy their neighbors. But this, too, is meaningless—like chasing the wind." Ecclesiastes 4:4 New Living Translation

Of course, most people traveling to work aren't doing it out of envy. I've always liked living as close to my job as possible. But while our company started in the town where I've always lived since moving here 32 years ago, we ran out of space - twice - and moved further away - twice. Now, I have to drive between 15 and 20 minutes to the next town to get to work. I used to ride my bicycle to work until the company moved - twice. And before I had this job, I worked for ten years in the same town where I was living.

Maybe things will change as fuel becomes more expensive but sometimes it costs more to live in one town or another. And sometimes there are more jobs in one place than another. But don't you think it would be better if more people lived in the town where they work? I guess that would be too organized. Human society, with all its attempts to be otherwise, has never been organized.