Episode Transcript  

One

Where’s the Good?

In the book, The Phantom Tollbooth, the main character, Milo, along with his friends, are in the process of trying to save a Kingdom from ruin. But at one point in their journey, they run into a faceless monster named “The Terrible Trivium.” And right away, the Trivium asks Milo and his friends for a little help with some projects. 

The first project is to move an enormous pile of sand “from here to there,” with nothing but tweezers.

The second project is to drill a tunnel through a large mountain, using only a needle.

Finally, he needs someone to move the water from one well into a different well with an eye-dropper.

These jobs are, of course, both time-consuming and unimportant. And, the evil Trivium explains, that’s the point. “If you only do the easy and useless jobs, you’ll never have to worry about the important ones which are so difficult. You just won’t have the time.”

If that strikes you as an awful way to live, then good. Because part of the joy and fulfillment of a good life means doing the exact opposite – it means dedicating yourself to important and challenging tasks. 

It means pursuing the good of achievement.

Two

Getting Good at Something

It’s good to be good at something. It’s something we all want. We want to develop some kind of skill, use some unique ability that can accomplish something worthwhile.

And there are so many kinds of things to be good at!

We can be good at calculating, good at organizing people, good at public speaking, good at designing computer systems, good at managing a home, good a fixing homes, good at food preparation, or at car repair, good at raising children or caring for people. 

And there’s a deep, deep pleasure in being good at something, and being able use what you’re good at to fulfill the duties of your state-in-life.

This is the joy of good work. It’s the fulfillment of achievement. And it’s one of the central ways we develop our humanity as God intended. 

Three

Grappling with Reality

Notice that all good work involves challenge to our intelligence and freedom. Good work brings us new problems, that require thoughtful creativity to solve and implement.

In other words, good work forces us to grapple with new aspects of reality all the time. We are challenged when something hits us that we weren’t expecting, and that we can’t figure out, right away, how to deal with.

It could be a challenging aspect of someone else’s personality. It could be a challenging aspect of the market. It could be a challenging engineering dilemma or a challenging medical situation. It could be the challenge of figuring out what to make for dinner.

But the point is that these challenges aren’t the downside of work – they’re part of the benefits. They mean that our work is revealing new aspect of the world that we have to come to terms with – and that’s precisely what forces us to grow and stay psychologically nimble.  

Work without challenge is work without using your intelligence and freedom. It’s work that causes your mind and will to atrophy. It’s the kind of work the Terrible Trivium recommends. It’s not the kind of work you want.

Four

Good Work and Good Leisure

Chesterton noted that there’s a connection between the kind of work that we do and the kind of leisure we pursue during our time off.

If our work is mindless and repetitive and meaningless, we’re that much more likely to use our free time for entertainment that’s mindless and repetitive and meaningless.

Whereas if our work is challenging and really worthwhile, we’ll be that much more likely to spend our leisure doing something challenging and worthwhile.

Once we experience the pleasure of getting good at something and achieving something through work, we’ll want the same pleasure of getting good at something and achieving something during our leisure time.

We’ll read good, challenging things. We’ll watch good, challenging things. We’ll maybe try to develop a musical or artistic or crafty skill, so we can create beautiful things. We’ll maybe pick up a sport or a game that we can enjoy playing well. 

The pleasure of achievement doesn’t have to be limited to your office. If you’re really forming yourself as someone who wants to be good at something worthwhile, that will carry over to other aspects of your life.

You just have to be willing to embrace the challenge. Because that’s the way to delight.

Five

Serving God and Neighbor

Maybe the worst part of the tasks the Terrible Trivium assigns is the way those projects don’t help anybody. 

But our work – whether our official job or our private projects – should always be geared towards building up God’s kingdom and making life better for people. 

It’s a good thing to be able to sing well – but the best part of being able to sing well is when you can use your gift to sing at mass.

It’s a good thing to be able to know how plumbing works – but the best part of having that knowledge is being able to help a family whose sink is clogged, and at the same time earning money to support your own family. 

Everything fully human reaches its high-point in love of God and love of neighbor. As we work to get good at things, let’s always keep that in mind, so that whatever work we do, and whatever skill we acquire, it may always be at the disposal of the Lord and in service of others.

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