No hard feelings Hollyhock. Its been a nice cozy winter, sitting in my corner office overlooking the ocean, three days a week, tap-tapping away on my (thank god) Mac with the nice big monitor, grooving with the marketing team. I think I’ve done a pretty good job. But that’s enough—I’m too old for this nonsense.
This nonsense being, the act of sitting in front of a computer for 8 hrs a day (well ok less than that, with lunch and plenty of stretch breaks), investing my heart and soul into something which isn’t my passion. Don’t get me wrong—I totally respect Hollyhock and the good people that make it tick. If I didn’t, I couldn’t work there for even five minutes, in any capacity. I respect, and I support. But I am 50 years old and I’ve only got so much juice in me. Life is too short to atrophy my body, or to pour out my soul, for something that isn’t the very reason why I am alive on this earth.
So I have asked for and received, a pay cut and a demotion. As of mid-May I’ll be back at my old job in Guest Services aka Hosting. Which mostly involves keeping the coffee bar and the dining room tidy, greeting incoming guests, and shuttling them and their excessive baggage to their rooms in a golf cart (I love driving the golf cart). I will find them extra pillows, soothe their owies, and remind them that all their travel pains are behind them and they are now HERE. Slip in a little dharma on the sly. I’ll tote heavy trays of glasses and bins full of hot tub towels, and I will mop and wipe and reach and bend. And at the end of the day, I will be tired, and sleep well.
<<image stolen from Sam Kalidi, with whom I am infatuated>>
How we choose to earn a living is one of the big ones and how much you sacrifice in the doing. The Dhamma talks about Right livelehood in the Eightfold Path , and some of us have been wise enough to be discerning about the choice of career or job we undertake. Personally I have been a bit of a workaholic , but the pay off is that I have more than one pension, and luckily the health to enjoy it. I don’t envy people who have to work these days.
As Joanna Macy says, work is love in action. I need money, but not very much, because my needs are few and mostly met through community. I do not work because I “have to”, I work because I want to make a contribution, and to serve those with whom I do not share bed or blood. I have never done work I am ashamed of, or worked for people or interests that I don’t respect. Why on earth would I ever want to retire? I don’t even understand the concept.
I certainly do not envy people who are doing work they hate for people they don’t respect. They should quit. Now. Life is short and karma is long.
“Work is love made visible. And if you can’t work with love, but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of the people who work with joyâ€
-Kahlil Gibran
Hi again , I forgot to ask, why are you infatuated with Sam Kalidi? I had a quick look and was unmoved , what did I miss ? Though the guys body must have taken a lot of work, tell me what’s the attraction?
He gives great Twitter. Sharp, funny, kooky and not mean.
I have respect for people of find their personal right livelihood—a livelihood they truly enjoy that nourishes the dharma rather than destroys it. Wether one’s right livelihood is waiting tables or engineering, if done with the intention to nourish the dharma, these individuals are truly blessed.