He had forgotten the simple emotions of childhood, and perhaps never encountered the delights of youth. He believed in production, that useful figment of economy, as if it had been real like laughter; Page 67
..ploughs and butter-churns were but means and mechanisms to give men the necessary food and leisure before they start upon the search for pleasure. Page 69
from Robert Louis Stevenson The Amateur Emigrant
This topic has accosted me of late – the idea that we have become so obsessed with the process of production and forgot why we earn money in the first place. There are many articles on TV and the internet about people who were making $100K+ and when they got laid off they went to a simpler lifestyle. Who needs all the stress and pressure – we’ve forgotten that we work to live not the other way around.
My thoughts on this are that it doesn’t have to be either/or. As my new acquaintance from San Diego State Philosophy department says, “the difference between eastern and western thought is that eastern is and/and and western is either/or”. We have to make a living, albeit not at the level it has risen to but we can be present in that process just as we can in taking a walk in the forest.
It may be our path to work on the ability to stay focused while we are in a stressful situation and that is our practice. If we were sitting in a cave or having all the day to ourselves we may be off our path.
Another thought – in our busy lives of work, how much of the day is wasted with not being focused? If we stop running around looking busy, going down deadend roads, trying to accomplish something that isn’t on the critical path or trying to get credit for being brilliant – how much time is left in the day to accomplish the things that need to be done. How many times do we get sidetracked with an emotional e-mail attack or even a negative response from somebody? Then the whirlwind starts.
And how many meetings are spent filling up the hour because that’s how long it scheduled. Do you end meetings when the topic is finished or find someething to fill the time?
My new colleague said at his previous company they had a rule that no meeting would exceeed 20 minutes. “21″ was the catchphrase. If you didn’t solve it in 20 minutes, then stop and start again some other time. People who didn’t come prepared were reprimanded.
And here is a good thought to end on, again from Robert Louis Stevenson, who I have found to be have brilliant reflections of our western culture:
Can it be that the Puritan school, by divorcing a man from nature, by thinning out his instincts, and setting a stamp of its disapproval on whole fields of human activity and interest, leads at last directly to material greed?