February 9, 2021
To every thing there is a season… and a time to every purpose under heaven…
and, at Ecclesiastes 3.9?
‘What profit has he that works in that
wherein he labours?’
(These quotes from the most convoluted and opaque collection of misinterpreted writing that I have ever seen, The Bible.)
The particular phrase ‘..what profit..’, is more than just one question, I take it to also mean: ‘What joy is there for a man who views his labour to be work/drudgery’. I say so because at 3.12 comes the statement – ‘I know that there is no good in them, but for a man to rejoice, and to do good in his life’, that sentence is modified by 3.13 -‘..and also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labour, it is the gift of God.’
Ultimately, Ecclesiastes 3. tells the truth – that life is perfect, it remains only that we see life as perfect. There is a time (the right time) for everything… We have sorrow, we have joy, we have life, we have death. It is a perfect circle. Also, we have clever writing and we have an old, fat guy who types and stares out the window thinking about things that more astute folk already know…Haha.
Yeah.
I have been considering what I do to be labour lately. I am working. I am writing. I am engaged, I am finding joy (in one small sense, not the JOY that everyone seems to think we are supposed to have or to seek). I am finding completion. The completion comes from completing something. It is the same sense of completion that a pussycat feels by climbing up to the windowsill and edging into the sunny spot. So far, the financial value in what I am doing is exactly zero. That zero is modestly modified with the fact that I earned .34cents by monetizing my Youtube channel.
There exists value, there exists good in what I am doing. The good is here for me and, maybe, good in what I do can be found by others. At the very least, I am not simply existing but passing the time of living without spending it on total purposelessness. Ha. Don’t like that constructed word? Neither do I. It’s a useful word, though. Just existing is, as well, useful. Yeah. We don’t owe life anything and life doesn’t owe us anything. That is okay. We can do better, probably should but it’s okay if we don’t.
In the matter of useful, the labour I do now is better, there is more good in it, than the labour I did and was paid for. Let’s also say that I am doing something, not just lying about using up the air. I find value in what I am doing. I am using the parts that I have, they are not rusting totally. My fingers are moving, my mind is thinking, I am not exactly idle. Good enough, that, too is okay. Wiggle or don’t…whatever.
The career that I spent 40 plus years in was never an aim, a goal, a prized labour. I was very well paid for it but most often felt it had no other value. It was never a thing I wanted to spend my time doing, it was always just a job. There were some moments I enjoyed my labour. There were some moments that engaged and interested me. There were times, I did not ‘work’ in my job. There were times, I moved with the rhythm of a workday and turned toward the sun but… I was mostly a whore, a wage slave. I did what I had to do and did it for the money. I mostly smiled, turned my face to the wall, thought of payday. That was not a healthy thing to do. I suffered emotionally and spiritually, I sent those vibrations into the world around me. The little pebble disruptions spread, as waves of any kind do. I contributed to a wave of ‘more and more money, no matter the cost’. I was equally guilty as any other fool, as any other prodigal child. I spent my resources (my soul) recklessly.
Now, that time is done and I am not filled with regret. In a way, I sinned but don’t dwell on that. Have I forgiven the sin? Odd. I am in the shady part of life/living and I have no regret for the wasted part. I have no regret that I did not spend my peak working years in the sun. I made a mistake. Oooops. I can accept that now, I learned a little bit. I now understand that even in mistake we are perfect: To everything, etc. It is, as they say, all good – all a part of the whole. Now, I am able to labour and find the joy in it. I am able to set aside the measuring tools and be in the moment, each stroke of the key another breath of living, each wacky thought that spills out another wave of freedom. I am not a slave anymore, I am a willing accomplice. I am not whore any longer, I am just a slut. Hahahahahahahah
Robert On The Air 