All Done

[ladysprite]

Okay. My vacation has apparently served its unstated purpose - I've spent as much time as I reasonably can slacking off, sleeping late, reading, catching up on missed television, and brainstorming. I'm ready and then some to go back to work, to the point where I had to actively keep myself from wandering by the office this afternoon.

I know that most people don't like to work. I know that part of the theoretical American dream is to make as much money as you can, as quickly as possible, and retire at the soonest possible instant. I just don't understand it. Without my work, I'd go mad inside a month or two.

I suppose it might be different if I were independently wealthy - I could go back to school, or travel, or pick up even more hobbies to devour my time. I could probably amuse myself for at least a little while longer, that way. But I'm fairly certain that, eventually, I'd want to be Doing Something. More specifically, doing something meaningful and medical and organized and somehow simultaneously unpredictable.

I haven't been completely sedentary this week; I've been running errands and catching up on projects and baking and chatting with friends.... but none of it makes me feel quite as awake and alive, after a few days. It's nice, and more than that, it's needed, but it also reminds me just what helps keep my heart beating and my thoughts turning.

Work tomorrow. One last night of escapist literature, snuggling, and television suspense-dramas, then back to the Dr. Becky costume. Gods, I hope it's busy....

Comments

[alexx-kay.livejournal.com]

In a recent discussion that siderea started about love, I posited that love was less of a "need" than things like food and shelter, but a greater need than, say, chocolate. The only nearly equivalent thing I could think of to match it with was "meaningful work". I'm not sure where this idea came from, though I doubt it's original with me. It does seem important, though, and under-recognized by our society.

[jducoeur]

I know that most people don't like to work.

I dunno -- I think it's largely a question of whether one has found the right thing to be working at. I don't find your feelings at all odd: my family tends to run much the same way.

It took my grandfather at least five years to adjust to being retired; he only managed it once he'd picked up enough active hobbies to make up for it. My father hasn't yet gotten around to retiring, and I suspect he never will -- he and his wife "retired" from their big-time jobs, then turned around and started running their own increasingly-successful consulting firm. (Where they weird out twentysomethings who can't understand how 60-year-olds can be so savvy about the Net.) I doubt I'll ever really retire -- programming is my best artform, and if I'm not doing it for money I start to restlessly do it for fun.

I gather (from my Dad and uncle, who are very into it) that there's an idea gaining steam, called "settled work". This basically refers to what folks do after they have "retired", and have enough money set aside so that they technically don't *have* to work. A lot of them do, though, especially the interesting ones -- they just keep doing what they like to do...