Working Thoughts

For now I have to make some money to cover certain expenses (electricity, phone, internet, cooking oil, insurance, property taxes and probably a few more that I can't think of). So not an inexhaustible list. But these expenses require cash--unfortunately you can't barter with Bell to pay your phone bill. I don't think they are intelligent enough for that. So that means that I'm going to have to do as everyone else (apart from the rich who just get richer from having money) and sell my labour.

This is the model of our society. You sell your labour, get cash and then use that cash to purchase the things that you need like food, shelter, booze, clothing. Producing these things yourself is discouraged and you're told that you're not as efficient as a farmer in producing food or than the sweatshop worker in producing your clothes. Never factored into the equation is developing useful life skills like spinning or gardening. These skills have no value. So we go to school for one thing and focus our lives on that skill, accounting say. And you had better pray that we always need accoutants, because you can't eat ledger sheets.

This weekend I'm working for Elections NS and making a certain degree of money. Basically I'm sitting in a room and doing very little to get tiny pieces of paper so that I can cover my un-barterable expenses. It's a nice job and I'm lucky to have it but what amazes me is that I'm not working hard at all and I come home so exhausted, way more exhausted than I would be planting garlic or pruning trees which I might call real work.

I wonder what it is. Probably a combination of sitting and a lack of exercise. Humans were made to move their asses. We are animals. So sitting around at a computer or at a desk just doesn't make sense to our cells. I wonder if this is the cause of my exhaustion at the end of the day. Perhaps it's also a lack of variety, a lack of stimulation.

Ultimately, I'll be happy to be finished this little job soon and then I'll be able to pay my bills for a few months. But wouldn't it be great if I didn't have to sell my labour and focused on more important things like building my personal and community resiliency. In the end isn't that more valuable than tiny pieces of paper?