I avoid politics whenever possible. For me, politics are no longer politics but a kind of ideological marketing and argument process that has nothing whatsoever to do with me or my beliefs. I do not wish to be on the left or the right, and there is really no other place. The corporate culture has eviscerated politics in the same way it is destroying media, culture, security, the economy, home ownership,  medicine, the law and work.

Companies are always asking if they have too many workers, but nobody is asking if there are too many economists. I say yes. Economists have decided that loving your work or your employees is no longer efficient in the new and global economy of scale in the same way they have decided that family farms are no longer efficient enough to sustain or protect. For many generations, American business advanced the notion of the contract between employer and employee. Loyalty, hard work and commitment were rewarded with security, advancement and the opportunity to end one’s life in dignity and safety. The economists seem to have forgotten that the economy did pretty well with that idea for a long time.

In “Death Of A Salesman,” Arthur Miller presciently sat a big change coming, yet even he didn’t imagine the cruelty, fear, dislocation, callousness and brutality of the modern corporate workplace, in which human beings are routinely discarded, traumatized and poorly paid. How many people do you know who love their work? I used to know a lot.  I have seen many cows on many dairy farms that have more secure lives than most American workers. Like most real issues, you will not see this discussed in our political campaigns. No politician can afford to raise that issue any longer. Look where their money comes from?

Watching Red work, I think of the idea loving work. I left CBS a generation ago because I came to see there was no longer any security in working for other people in America. My idea of security has evolved. Today, and for me, it means doing work I love. I will hang on to that to the very end of my life. That is line for me, the space I won’t cross. Many people tell me that is not possible for them. I don’t know what to say to that. People told me it wasn’t possible for me either. It is possible. It just isn’t easy.

I believe one of the many connections I have with Red is that we both love our work. I try and to my work the same way he tries to do it. With passion, intensity, commitment and pride. He inspires me. Loving work is so important. For me, it is, along with love, the point of life.

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New thing. On Sundays I am posting a “Questions For Me?” topic on Facebook. I get many questions each week about my work, my books, my photography, the dogs, donkeys, other animals on the farm. I saw on Jenna Woginrich’s website that she pots “questions” topics from time to time, so I’m trying out the idea. I cannot answer all of the questions I get and I don’t try. It’ s just not a good way for me to spend my time. So I’ll try this and see how it works. Sundays, if it turns out to be worthwhile. On my Facebook Page (link above.)