{"id":2856,"date":"2012-09-08T04:40:39","date_gmt":"2012-09-08T04:40:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/?p=2856"},"modified":"2012-09-08T04:40:39","modified_gmt":"2012-09-08T04:40:39","slug":"we-love-the-work-ethic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/we-love-the-work-ethic\/","title":{"rendered":"WE LOVE THE WORK ETHIC"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

WHAT\u2019S SO GREAT ABOUT WORKING 9-5?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

I don’t mind coming to work,<\/p>\n

but that eight hour wait to go home is a bitch.<\/p>\n

Anonymous<\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

I have always believed that everyone needs a job.\u00a0 When I hear dire reports on diminishing jobs I think, \u201cHow will these people support themselves?\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I think there is nothing like steady job with benefits to give your life a solid foundation.\u00a0 Old values are so comfortable that I for one feel guilty when I chuck them in the wastebasket.\u00a0 I want to meet the parent who doesn\u2019t say to his college graduate, \u201dWhen do you start work?\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I figured out that a job didn\u2019t mean happiness in the sixties and I can still remember how frightened I was to dare to forge ahead doing what I loved instead of reporting to an office five grueling days a week.\u00a0 I decided I wanted to write stories about interesting people and I did just that.\u00a0 I mailed them out to magazines every day.\u00a0 Some were accepted and some were not.\u00a0 I did a bit of baby sitting, tried my hand at dog walking, but always, I came back to the typewriter (what we used in those days) and did what I loved best: write. My parents thought I had committed a sin.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t have embarrassed them more if I had stood nude on a busy corner with a sign saying \u201cAvailable.\u201d\u00a0 And I agreed with them.\u00a0 I felt I was being immoral to love designing my days to suit only myself.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

If you think that attitude went the way of vinyl records, you are wrong.\u00a0 When my friends Richard and Susan got married five years ago, Richard\u2019s parents were horrified.\u00a0 \u201cYou don\u2019t have a JOB,\u201d they said. \u201c How can you support a wife?\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I know in my head that there are many ways to support yourself that don\u2019t involve a long commute and a desk in one office for forty years. I know hundreds of people who support themselves with a series of part time jobs or do low level work to feed themselves while they do what they love in the evening.\u00a0 \u00a0Henry has a degree in nuclear engineering and he is working at a coffee house so he can write his book.\u00a0 Sean quit his teaching job because he couldn\u2019t stand being confined in a classroom with 30 unwilling students.\u00a0 Now he gardens for a living.\u00a0 Paul cooks gourmet meals for busy work people and delivers them ready to eat at dinner time.\u00a0 None of them are rich and all of them are happy\u2026.but if one of them were my kid, I would nag them to death.\u00a0 \u201cWhat will you do when the money runs out?\u201d I\u2019d say.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I see unhappy men my age who spent so much time working for someone else that they didn\u2019t prepare for a life where they could do what they loved instead of what earned a steady wage.\u00a0 My friend Tony retired from the business community when he was 65.\u00a0 He decided that he had enough savings set aside that he could afford to pursue a life in the arts.\u00a0 He became a successful playwright and in his spare time, (which he has now) he sings with his church choir.\u00a0 He takes time to go on hiking trails with his wife and he is a happy man.\u00a0 Yet, when his son was out of a job, he was beside himself with worry.\u00a0 \u201cHow will he take care of his wife and three children?\u201d\u00a0 he said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It want until I reminded him of how happy he was that he realized he was sentencing his son to the same frustration that he had endured for forty years.\u00a0 It is another one of those cases of telling you \u201cdo what I say, don\u2019t do what I do.\u201d\u00a0 All of us are concerned for our children\u2019s future.\u00a0 We all know that the proverb \u2018a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush\u2019 can sentence our children to a life of thankless drudgery.\u00a0 But we also know that food and shelter take money and no one wants to think of their children living in poverty.\u00a0 That wasn\u2019t part of the dream we had for them.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I know that no job ends when you leave the office.\u00a0 I see young people on their computers in coffee shops and on the bus. \u00a0The work day never seems to end.\u00a0 People these days don\u2019t want to \u00a0work in one place for one person for forty years just to get a gold watch and a pension. Fulfillment.\u00a0 Growth.\u00a0 Experimenting.\u00a0 That is what your generation is about these days and I think it is wonderful.\u00a0 Now that I am of a certain age, I want in on the excitement you have every day.\u00a0 Why not?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

There are so many things I want to do before I die.\u00a0 I want to run outside draped in a shower curtain and sing to the stars. I want to climb a flag pole sprayed with glitter singing \u201cwish on a star.\u201d\u00a0 I want to wear flowers in my hair and do cartwheels on the pier.\u00a0 If you join me, I will break dance in the middle of the freeway.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The difference is no one sends me on a guilt trip or says, \u201cWhy don\u2019t you get a job?\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

My parents are dead.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WHAT\u2019S SO GREAT ABOUT WORKING 9-5? \u00a0 I don’t mind coming to work, but that eight hour wait to go home is a bitch. Anonymous   I have always believed…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"yasr_overall_rating":0,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[837],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2856","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-joe-cillo"},"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":true,"span_bottom":"