On work

What is work to you?

Many of us are always ‘working’. Which I find offensive. Given I almost never define said work in even a similar way to which the other is referring to it.

On a whim, I was able to generate many definitons of this nebulous ‘work’, non-exhaustive of course:

• vaguely, the hours of 8am to 5pm, Monday thru Friday, in one’s respective time zone
• the de facto and excellent excuse for not attending, or involving ones self in an undesirable affair
• whatever one does for money; a profession; a career; employment; ‘what bossman says to do’
• a performance of sorts, where an appearance of busy-ness percludes any need of sending, much less reading emails or Teams messages
• things that ‘are to be done’, but are not necessarily enjoyable; laundry, lawn care, hygiene (to some)
• unbounded, uncontrained, and solitary time used to explore, create, or ruminate - embracing any difficulty or uncomfortability that ensues
• sustained physical and/or mental time & effort exerted toward the realization of one’s potential or any particular goal, perhaps conceptual, material, or just merely symbolic of the former or latter
• lastly, perhaps on one’s worst days: life (life is work, to work is to be alive)

As an aside, I for one, love doing laundry

So, how do I know what anyone is doing when they are ‘working’? One thing is certain: working is not inherently virtuous or viceful. Your definition of it may make it so.

How could something so central to our daily affairs and existence, be so intenible? Almost meaningless?

Not sure, but you’ll find me working…