Do you like work, or is it just a necessary evil? Let's get a few more perspectives in this post.
Can an individual really be set free from the outside? The life that people in the western world have now is paradise compared to a couple hundred years ago. And yet many people are still miserable.
I believe profound change can only come from within.
12 comments:
In my opinion it is not work that is the necessary evil, it is money. Even as little as 100 years ago in the country many people worked for "their" living, that is to say, they worked the land to survive. Now, most people work for "a" living, meaning they work for money to buy survival with. I think Buckminster Fuller had the idea when he finally decided not to worry about the money aspecty of work, and just to concentrate on the work. If I did not need money, I would be more likely to do something I was passionate about, even it is was unprofitable to me monetarily. As it is, I am forced to work at something that affords me a good "survival", but does not really satisfy my soul.
I work 1:1 with kids who need special help in the public school system. Every year they assign me a new kid, and it's very exciting because there is always a deeper aspect of what's going on between this child and myself. It makes me want to sing, it can't be seen on paper, it is beautiful. Many aspects of my "job" (i.e. the public school system) are ugly and depressing and I just bear it like a cross. But my "work" is not my "job" -- my work is bringing my light out there, and being touched by it when I see it in others. It's the ony fun thing in the world for me. This spark is my LIFE. But I do work at dropping the concept "job" from my mind. I associate work with love. I make enough money for what I need, but believe me, there is very little left over :)
"In my opinion it is not work that is the necessary evil, it is money."
Nice. Talk about pinpointing the problem!
("DanzLake"... Would you happen to be related to Tchaikowsky's Swans, per chance?)
"It makes me want to sing"
I read your signal, Room. ;-)
Children are a concentrate of happiness, and the Gospel didn't fail to mention it. Have you seen Disney/Pixar's "Monters, Inc."? The ending is very cute.
Adam,
Well said. Clearly you're no dummy. :-P
But, it should be pointed out that there are many ways to work to earn/learn something. Quite often, you get something (in one meaning or the other) in a very unexpected way. I've learned much from hardship and seeming "failure".
Eolake, your term "paradise" got me thinking... (I know, "Yikes! Again?")
What kind of a world would we live into, if there were no more necessary struggles to drive us?
Is the human race (correction : species) condemned to an eternity of hardship in order not to degenerate into self-contentment and decadence?
Does the only possible serenity lie in the Buddhist acceptation that we shall forever live in one kind of crummy world or another?
Especially considering that the vast majority of the planet DON'T live in such a paradise as the West, far from it.
Deep questions. Here's an even deeper one : what sound does the voice of a blogger make if there's nobody to read his posts? ;-)
[Answer : "clickity-clickity-clickity-click!" A typing sound.] :-D
Lucid Twilight,
I think your pen name is extremely well chosen. You write with lucidity and the optimism of a twilight which reminds us the night is much more than simply a necessary time of darkness.
Thank you for your comments and ideas. I was merely expressing one side of "the world", you did a great job in balancing the scales. Because your point is perfeclly relevant, so much that I have nothing to add or criticize about it. (And coming from this blog's official most prolific poster, that's saying something.) Good night to you, Twilight. Sleep tight, you deserve it. ;-)
Oh, one small thing...
"Mayhaps there are many who would do no more than sit on their porch all day and bask in nature, but surely they've the right. Besides, there's no telling what good may come of it"
I believe this is how the consensually "useless" activity of poetry comes to existence. I love poetry.
Mayhaps there are many who would want to hear nothing of it, but surely they've the right. Provided they accept ours to differ.
(^_^)
Twilight can be in the morning too, though less often used that way.
Lucid is a very young person, I happen to know. It'll be interesting to see what he comes up with in coming decades.
"Work" is a necessary thing. Sometimes evil, but you do it to get money or, at the worst, to not lose the opportunity to get more money later. Sometimes work is delightful, especially if it feels in line with your goals and ambitions and hopes for the planet.
The thing that is soul-destroying, for me, about "work," is the act of STAYING SAME. Staying at the same location, arriving at the same time every day, seeing the same people all the time, claiming to be the same person every day. The flourescent lights, the photocopier, the dust. (Most modern offices are amazingly dusty. Ever looked under your computer monitor, or behind the edges of the carpet?)
I am industrious, I put in effort, I act in appropriately businesslike ways, always that cheery enthusiasm that is expected. I know to take on side-projects where I can really shine; to delegate that which I'm likely to fumble; to respect the hierarchies even when the boss' special idea is idiotic. I'm often assessed as remarkably, surprisingly productive for my organization, to the point that often big gains are realized quite soon after my arrival. Yet I get fired regularly. "This isn't working out" and "You aren't happy here" are the usual excuses.
Well, they're right, it isn't "working out" and I'm certainly not "happy here." But if happiness were my employers' primary concern, they'd simply eliminate my responsibilities, quadruple my paycheck, and send it to me in Aruba or Rio.
I believe in the "calling" theory of work. I also believe we've seldom had it better, as a species, than in the early 21st Century. But my own, personal "calling" is ever-changing -- I want to know a little about everything, and do that too! -- and my official personality type is "Napoleon" or "Caesar" -- never happy unless I'm in charge. In charge of the entire world.
So, what am I to do? Mount an insurrection?
Argh. Just whining. I am glad Mr. Stobblehouse provides an intelligent counterpoint to the usual holier-than-thou pronouncements of the world's early risers and pednats, smugly self-assured because other consistently boring people identical to themselves tend to reproduce and promote one another. I'm not like them. Does this mean I can no longer eat?
"But my own, personal "calling" is ever-changing"
You really should read "Renaissance Soul", the book by Margaret Lobenstine.
I guess one solution to the "same old same old" is to change jobs every two years or so. Or, change spouses every ten years. Or, change homes, get another degree, or change my body shape.
I'm tempted by all of the above. But at 45 what feels really new is to change my mind. Find a way to renew THAT. Allow perception of the tired old world to give way to "not knowing" those people I think I know (and dislike) so well, to not know that brick building I call "boring New Paltz Middle School", to see my co-workers as if for the first time. A deeper vision wants to come through, "the familiar" is not what we think it is. We can see life differently, if we ask to, if we've reached a kind of self-despair. For me these days, a whole new shift in perception is the liberation. It is a step up for me to commit to this world, but I only desire to be here if it's in a new way.
Laurie
Thanks for your comment, Eolake (I'm the "anonymous" who wrote about my calling being ever-changing). I just wanted to let you know I saw it. :)
Anonymous,
It's weird that your work experience sounds near-identical to mine. Last time I was "fired" (for lack of a more appropriate word to describe this masquerade) in Lebanon, I was litterally accused of doind too good a job! Not by my appreciative co-workers, by the boss in chief. Did HE feel I made him look bad in comparison? Could be, go figure...
"Most modern offices are amazingly dusty. Ever looked under your computer monitor, or behind the edges of the carpet?"
Yeah, I know the feeling... in my own home! It feels like the best time to start thinking of cleaning, is right after I've just done it. Because by the time I finally get to do it, it's already urgent again.
"Does this mean I can no longer eat?"
Yeah, shame on you for existing! How dare you breathe? "Those bastard poors!"
SignalRoom,
Changing your mind is the best (and usually lest hazardous) way to change your self, and therefore your life. The rest is only... skin deep(!) in comparison. (Though not necessarily trivial.)
Your true secret seems, rather than becoming somebody entirely different, to LIVE the world as something constantly new (which it is, in a way), with the same permanent ability to be surprised and amazed as little children. Remember : not only are they happy, but this is how they learn so much. :-)
Lucid,
You just stole the way I perceive myself! Ah well, it's not like I have less of it now. ;-)
I was surprised to learn you're a "he", because you're not typical. Then again, who is on this blog? Neither stereo nor typical, that's us. :-)
You're just in harmony with all sides of yourself, including the less "virile" ones like poetry and introspection, just as you're in touch with "all your ages". Again, I feel a bit plagiarized. ;-)
And, those little surprises make the world a constantly new and fresh place, right?
P.S.: It's true, Twilight can mean both extremities of the day, just like in French ("crépuscule"). And just like in French, it's commonly merged with the notion of Dusk in daily use, which is an... ab-use!
Beautiful, Twilight. (Pun intended!)
"To change often means to die in a sense"
In a sense. Just like the seed that ceases to be while becoming a tree, which will bear thousands of new seeds. And to think this metaphor is 2.000 years old... Ancient wisdom, indeed!
Maybe I'm lucky that contest ended five days ago. ;-)
"Partir, c'est mourir un peu.
Mourir, c'est partir beaucoup."
"To leave, is to die a little.
To die, is to leave a lot."
All in the perspective.
Most people are "dead afraid" of dying, while the main fear in reality should be to suffer needlessly at the moment of death. Or before! Change is not the worst thing that could happen to us.
I have noticed that ever-present pernicious notion of "the good old times". Most people are intimately afraid of change, and they fantasize on the illusion of a stable, comforting universe (even Einstein himself), fearing and often hating anything that modifies their mental landmarks, even for the better. Abstract nostalgia is a pernicious poison. But also an innate instinct in all of us, which we should be wary of. (Just like racism.)
Life itself is change, a dynamic balance against entropy : we are conceived, we are formed, we are born, we grow, we go through the maturing change puberty, we give birth, we reach menopause, and one day we die and leave the place to the new generation. The spectre of Death is not a divine punishment : it is a scarecrow, a man-made boogeyman lurking behind the door of our imaginations. We run away from our graveyards, filling them with ghosts, ghouls and evil shadows, while the elephants peacefully travel there when they know their time has come. Did you know a dying cat sometimes starts purring? Animals are full of wisdom. "The time has come, I am serene." Period.
And to think some of the people most afraid to die that I've known were also the most religious! What good is it to believe in an afterlife then? If you don't REALLY believe in it when the time comes? Survival instinct is good; refusing normal Fate is useless, against Nature, and stupidly masochistic.
Maybe I should have posted this on the Suicide/Euthanasia thread. Where's Ronald when you need a stimulating presence? Say where's Ronald at all, in fact? Somebody call the Police and file a missing person claim!
"Either this man is dead, or my watch has stopped." -- (Groucho Marx, taking a pulse.)
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