Column: Making a living, making a life

Journalists are often criticized for dwelling on the negative. Why don't you write about the good news, readers sometimes wonder. And I think they have a point.

Although, in our defense, when's the last time your daily dinner-table rehash went like: “Well, I drove to work and didn't crash, found an OK parking space and got to my desk on time. I had an average number of emails waiting in my inbox, and ...” You'd fall asleep in your meatloaf.

Still, it's nice sometimes to just sit back and remember that most of the time, things are humming along just fine.

Two items last week brought this to mind. Nothing earth-shattering or excessive - just two nice pieces of news. The first was when San Francisco-based financial literacy website NerdWallet (Yup. You read that right), put Iowa City and Ames areas on their shortlist of best places for work-life balance. The second came in the form of musician David Byrne's (mostly) positive impressions of Des Moines.

“My friends, of course, thought I was crazy,” Byrne blogged. “Des Moines, a good place to live? Are you serious? Well, yeah, I think I am (serious, not crazy).”

He noted inequalities and mediocrities, but said they seemed less stark in Iowa's capital than in similarly situated cities he's toured: “I saw people out and about, and I thought to myself - this is America as it's supposed to be, or close to it,” he wrote. “It's imperfect, but people here seem to have found a way of living that is not based around either extremes of manic striving or desperation.”

Byrne's verdict was, admittedly, based on a brief encounter. Some of his observations - that there didn't seem to be any homeless people or other of “society's rejects” - were on the generous side. So, too, the folks at NerdWallet's calculations that Iowa Citians and Amesers must have it made in the shade.

We work fewer hours, have shorter commutes and earn fairly decent wages, on the whole, the website found. I asked around on Facebook: Most people made a joke.

“Balance? What's that?” “Seems like 3 full-time jobs is about my limit.” “Is anyone really able to find balance,” a few of them wrote. But others talked about deliberately deciding to give equal due to earning a living and living well, and why.

Maybe it's all about perception, a friend suggested.

I think he's right.

Comments: (319) 339-3154; jennifer.hemmingsen@sourcemedia.net