2 September

Labor Day. Thinking About Work. In The Fear Machine

by Jon Katz
Labor Day

On Labor Day Weekend, I’m thinking about work. Most people I run into do not like their work, and they say they are afraid to make any changes. They are afraid of not finding another job, of losing health care, retirement funds, worrying about parents or relatives or kids they might have to take care of.

The Fear Machine has advanced the idea that we are lucky to have work at all, and if we know what is good for us, we will be quiet and lay low and hope for the best. We are not expected to do work we love, but to do work we can find on almost any terms. Not, I think, a great way to approach work and life. In upstate New York, I meet a lot of people who have very little money, but who love their work – small farmers, landscape workers, vets and vet techs, people who start small businesses and try and make them work.

Businesses used to pride themselves on forging loyal bonds with employees, and now they openly brag to stockholders and investors that they pay little, outsource work, an don’t offer benefits. This, I am told, is the new economy.

I have always loved my work, from my days as a reporter and political writer and media critic. Once I stopped loving that, I turned to books, fiction and non-fiction. I believe in the importance of loving what you do, and of feeling secure in the fact that you are doing something you love, which means you are apt to do it well and perhaps even successfully. On Labor Day, I commit to that and give thanks for being a writer, and I promise if I stop loving it, I will stop doing it and do something else. A quiet weekend at the farm, nothing much planned. Just got a couple of books to hole up with for the weekend with my former girlfriend.

 

2 September

Winston And The Male Ego

by Jon Katz
Winston And The Male Ego

I’m enjoying Winston. Whenever  I see him all puffed up and clucking and strutting around, I think of the Male Ego.

I struggle with maleness, and feel for men. Often closed up. Strutting and clucking around. Lots of ego. Trouble listening. Much of that has been beaten out of me,  and I sometimes find the only men I really like were either tortured as kids or humiliated as adults. Winston is a man, through and through.

2 September

Simon Says. Labors Of Love. Video – Braying for Vermont

by Jon Katz
Simon Says: Labor of Love

I’ve never read a philospher or writer I respected who didn’t say the same thing about work. Do what you love, at all costs, by any means. This is not always or even often easy to do. We have bills to pay, health insurance, computers to buy, kids to get through school, skidding economies, Hurricanes that pop up and wreck towns.

Still, I believe in the notion that God created humans, and humans alone, with the creative spark. This is what is unique and sacred about us, what separates us from the animal. I dropped my car off in Glens Falls for service this morning, and when I asked the service manager how he was, he smiled grimly, and said “oh, you know, I’m living the dream.” He told of rude and thoughtless customers, long days. Then he asked me how I was.

“Oh,” I said, slow to grasp he had been sarcastic. “I am living my dream.” When I was young, and in painful conflict with my family, I swore to myself that I would always do what I love, no matter the cost. And the cost has sometimes been very high.

But to me, this is my soul, my calling, my purpose.To infuse my work with passion and commitment, and to make sure that I do what I love, as life is too short and precious to do otherwise, bad economy and obligations or not. There are many people who can and will say, well easy for him to say, and maybe that is so. But work for me is not simply a way to pay my bills, but a way to live a meaningful and self-determined life on the earth.

There are lots of bad jobs in the world, and many people eager to fill them for understandable and good reasons. But on Labor Day weekend I am reminded that work is as precious as life and as much a part of our identity, and people who make bad jobs and force people to stay in them will be called to account in their own place and time.

Simon reminds me that life is too important to give up. So he brays for Vermont today, and for doing work we love.

Reminder: “Going Home” video will be shown here at 9 a.m. Thursday, September .

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