The Bay Street Happiness Project is a blog and website that captures moments of happiness in the supposedly inhuman place that is Bay Street in downtown Toronto, Canada. Ultimately, ‘Bay Street’ acts as a metaphone for any working environment.
It was July 8, 2011. I had grabbed lunch and was hurrying back to my desk when I saw something in the courtyard off Bay Street in Toronto. There were three women dressed in outrageous hoop dresses, acting a pantomime (of what appeared to be a plot of jealousy and betrayal) on platform stilts about 20 feet in the air. “The Three Belles.” Their story was absolutely compelling. I could see even the most hurried executives reluctantly stopping, then full being swept away by the theatre of it all. It was extraordinary. It reminded me of what it meant to be human in the often de-humanizing environment. It paused my day, and I was grateful.
I have worked on Bay Street for much of my career. I have always found that even though really tough, complex decisions are often made (layoffs, write-offs, etc.), the intention of the vast majority of people working is quite simple. People simply want to help others using their unique skills and intelligence.
In the fall as the Occupy Movement started to take shape, I was often struck by how disconnected the two ‘sides’ had become. What I saw every day did not match what I heard from the Occupy camps. Most Bay Streeters could sympathize with many of the Occupy observations, but Occupy did not seem to address the majority of how the ‘one percenters’ and the vast number of ‘99 percenters’ spend most of their working days.
I happened to be reading Gretchen Rubin’s The Happiness Project while much of the discourse was taking place, and started to look for moments of happiness in my working life. I started to feel more balanced. More hopeful. More connected to my real self.
The world is grey, and in the end I believe people are all trying to do the best they can for themselves, their family and each other using the intelligence and gifts that they have been given.
In looking for moments of humanity on Bay Street, I was actually able to find a little happiness. If this blog helps even on person to find this balance, then I will consider it a success.