work less
this morning, mike calls to express his sadness in having to work today, while yesterday he had the freedom to do whatever he wished. i then sat on my couch drinking tea, and stumbled across the following passage in adbusters.
i want to consider the possibility that every age has an extremely small fraction of people who go their own way without making a big production of it: not Jean-Paul Sartre, but Boris Vian; not Goethe, but Heinrich von Kliest; not Martin Heidegger, but Ludwig Wittgenstein. these are bohemians with a small b, in other words; their work breaks with fixed forms, and it is often about the idea of breaking with fixed forms. yet they do not try to elevate their iconoclasm into a movement, a new fixed form. In his book Class, Paul Fussell calls this group "class X," but since this group, for the most part, has very little in common with Generation X, I am going to substitute the acronym NMI, the new monastic individual. NMIs, says Fussell, make up the class of people that belong to no class, have no membership in a heirarchy. they form a kind of "unmonied aristocracy," free of bosses, supervision, and what is typically called "work." they work very hard, in fact, but as they love their work and do it for its intrinsic interest, this work is not much different from play. in the context of contemporary american culture, such people are an anomaly, for they have no interest in the world of business success and mass consumerism. their credo, if it could be formulated at all, most clearly approximates a haiku by the seventeenth-century Japanese poet Basho:
Journeying through the world
to and fro, to and fro
cultivating a small field.
perhaps it is time to "work" less.
Posted by jeff pitcher at December 11, 2003 11:18 AM
....................................
I just found a website.
www.wewannadoanythingwewannadoanytimewewannadoit.com
I'm not precisely sure what their angle is of than Left, but I like their URL.
Posted by: Summer at December 11, 2003 02:29 PM
Workers of the world relax. Indeed. And here I sit with 15 more papers to grade. A few E-mails already from students who are looking for their grades. It's called paying for your mortage. One remembers that it took St. Francis a couple of tries before he really walked off to hang out with the animals and homeless in the forest. Hot women and good food brought him back to dad's country a few times. Some people can talk to god. I'm talking to cheese and crackers and a stack of ungraded papers on Henrik Ibsen. Jesus Christ.
Posted by: Christian Kiefer at December 11, 2003 10:00 PM
Yes, it would be nice to not have to work. (Super Lotto, why don’t you ever favor me???) But alas, the thing called a mortgage – such a burden it can be, especially when you want change gears in life yet can’t b/c you’re bound to ½ of the house under legal contract.
Speaking of sites & ads, I was searching for a cheap room to rent in the city, and came across this HILARIOUS ad on craigslist.org (get a load of this, you guys…and yes, this is a real ad)…
“$1 – CUTE STRAIGHT GUY LOOKING TO EXCHANGE ROOM IN GREAT FLAT FOR SEX…girlfriend moved out a few months ago...i’m great guy (white) in my early thirties successful tall attractive fit…just not interested in getting back into dating, but would appreciate sharing this great place with a respectful and easy going female roommate…so if you are looking for a casual boyfriend and a room in a great place for $1 a month, this may work for both of us…more interested in good company than sex but who doesn't like the latter as well…room is available now.”
Hmmmm…I might have to see a picture of this fellow first. $1 may be a bit overpriced. (J/K)
Posted by: Brina at December 12, 2003 08:24 AM
