First, let’s address the reasons why people work. Most of us work in order
to make money that pays for food, clothing, and shelter, plus hopefully a
little extra. Those fortunate few who are independently wealthy may work for
other, more “aesthetic” reasons, however, if you are among the majority,
working is your only known route to survival.
Does a squirrel ever question his nut ferreting when the tide of summer
turns to colder climes? No one can feign to know the logic in a squirrel's
business, but we assume he does what he does because his instinct tells him so.
I doubt he ever stops to wonder if there's "something more." He needs
food, so he finds it. He needs shelter, so he gets it. So, what of our
instinct? The world is so different today than when compared with a hundred
years ago. In America,
and many other parts of the world, industry has taken over our lives.
A good majority of us work for a corporation because we have to - paying our
mortgages and our racked-up credit card bills, car payments - or even our
school loans (resulting from an education that did nothing for us but feed the
machine ever more) - working for someone else because that's what everyone else
does. It's been a long time since the agricultural society was mainstream, and
even longer since the idea of agriculture first came into being thousands of
years prior. A majority of us are far removed from the direct consequence of
seeking sustenance.
Do you remember the last time you were stranded to fend for yourself,
searching the branches of a berry bush for your next meal? Would you be able to
recognize your instinct? Some of us are so far removed from the needs of our
bodies and minds that it's like seven degrees of separation from the time we
walk in the door of our employer to the time we take the first bite of mashed
potatoes at dinnertime.
We don't barter our own skills with one another like we did in the old days,
reaping the direct consequences of our labor. Instead we sell ourselves to
employers who will pay us as they see fit for the service they need when they
need it. And in the process, we lose something vital, while our talents go
unexplored and un-witnessed. But, this is what a good majority of people do,
separating their spirits from their bodies on a daily basis.