Some interesting, although perhaps slightly uncomfortable, thoughts about why you and your friends can't just get a job...
With unsettling frequency, I find that my generation can only identify and embrace success if it stems from self-expression, to such an extent that people are numbing and abusing themselves through drink and drugs to suppress frustration and a crushing sense of failure over having a 9-5 job. Unheralded, productive labor – a paycheck – is a drag because it's not fun and it's not "me." Individual recognition is such an enormous part of our models for success and accomplishment that we derive no sense of satisfaction from our jobs. We are in conflict because work is ordinary, and we are supposed to be extraordinary. Mom said so.
So we were told that we are special, and we aren't.
Although I still suspect that we really were meant to be...
Thursday, August 24, 2006
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4 comments:
Or maybe there is just a problem with the fact that it is considered normal to be at your job from NINE O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING until FIVE O'CLOCK at effing night for FIVE DAYS A WEEK. I mean really, man.
lw
Yeah, on the one hand, 9-5 office jobs staring at computers are soul-sucking and horrible. BUT: it's still better than, say, being a slave building an egyptian pyramid. I think, as usual, our generation picked out something bad (9-5 soul sucking office jobs) and threw a tantrum about it instead of redeeming it. I guess the thing with Christians is that we can go back to ass cubicle jobs and achieve the all important "fullfillment" just filing TPS reports. PLUS, we get to do extraordinary, holy things after work. I just keep thinking of Corrie ten Boom, building her little watches, or knitting sweaters for german soldiers all day in a concentration camp. Not exactly fullfilling, fun, or exciting work either way, but definitely holy and glorious.
I think the thing that makes it hard is that Corrie wasn't under any illusion that her job was supposed to be meaningful. The modern workplace is a weird mix of people telling you to do mind-numbing work, while exhorting you to do it with "passion" and to care deeply about it.
i agree with zellyn. a job is a job; just do it and do it well. at least, i'm trying to think this way.
and i am special regardless of what my job is. ;)
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