Happy Labor Day.
Hopefully you're reading this at least a day or two after it's posted, as I assume you are having all the fun (or rest, or both) you can ask for.
There's something incredible about having a job. And it has very little to do with the size of my paycheck. The idea of sustaining myself, making sure I open the fridge and food awaits me. That I pull out a key and know it leads to a door where my things and my bed will greet me, clean and dry. It's a good feeling. And if you read my last post, you understand that the fight for employment is very real to me. The last five or six years have been a great instructor on the the realities of making a living. There really has never been a Labor Day that has felt more important than this one; Providing for myself makes my identity distinctly visceral in a way you all understand only by having it yourself, or having to go out there and fight for it.
As Creatives, it is understood that job security is an illusion. It's really an illusion for all of us, but in our field, as is increasingly common among all job sectors as they turn to contractors and temp employment, you never know when you'll be in or out of the workforce.
About two months ago I was back in that position. I was working for a non-profit and it was a mutually appreciated working relationship, but my employment was never designed to be permanent. The deadline for me to leave was finally a mere few weeks away. Walking around a supermarket here in the city, I was thinking about getting employment and decided to apply for a position there. The company is reputable--many of my friends who have worked for them all gave high marks.
Every once in awhile, I would nudge the manager's desk there. Two weeks to the end of my temp employment, I got hired to a "permanent" position. And that food store is where I support myself now.
It's the first time in four years that I didn't have downtime between jobs and so on my Birthday, I was given the gift of stable employment. So far, I can confirm every good review that has been give about this company. The future here looks very promising.
But it's not artist work. And that pull--that need frankly--to be involved creatively now pulls on me more than ever.
I really believe that we hunger in four different ways: the obvious one is the stomach, but I also need fulfillment in my heart, my mind, and my spirit. While my job is great in so many ways, I have temporarily traded my Creative pursuits that feed my soul so I can feed my body (which don't get me wrong, is also extremely importantly to me). The soul to me has nothing to do with religion, or atheism, or "isms" of any kind: When you are fortunate enough to know what kind of work you want for your soul (which I would also say happens to be the way most people talk about their CAREERS, NOT their JOBS), sacrificing that pursuit for other needs in your life is a hard, hard, compromise.
We tend to grade our jobs by the money they make and the level of acceptance we garner by doing them. But that shouldn't be your only metrics. There SHOULD be love in what you do. There SHOULD be ways that it pays you and those you care about beyond what any paycheck is capable of providing.
As I write this, I come back to the Declaration of Independence and wonder if this is what the American Dream really stands for: to not only surviving life, but thriving in it. I think that's when a job transcends into the kind of position someone would commit to for fifty years. And anyone I've talked to who has been fortunate enough to contribute in such way has fondly described the above.
I wish that for all of you.
And if your job cannot provide such, that you have another kind of work that can.
AND even if you're still searching, make sure you take a moment today and celebrate your pursuit of Life, Liberty, and Happiness.
Wishing you all love and good things.
-Ben
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