04 - "What Work Is"

Work is hard. For everyone with a job who depends on the money they earn to get by in life, work is hard. It doesn't matter if you like your job or hate your job. A job is a job. That means even if you want to do something else or spend more time with family or just sleep all day, you can't. Not until you complete the task you're being payed to do.

Today, I heard a voice recording of a poem called "What Work Is" by Philip Levine. Within that poem describes the position of the people who are desperately looking for work and those who have jobs that they could easily be fired from. What they both have in common is that the worker and the hope-to-be worker have to show how far they are willing to go to cling to the job they're being offered. Such a thing puts down their self-worth and confidence. It's as if the employer is saying "I own you and there's nothing you can do about it." I don't know whose fault it is that things in this so-called "civilized" and "free" and "lawful" country have to be run this way. But this is the way things are and no one has a choice but to accept it for what it is.


Some people are so desperate for jobs that they develop a feeling of resentment or blame towards people with stable jobs. But the truth is that whether the person is a doctor, a lawyer, or a waitress they all have to wake up at their due time, come to work and carry out their jobs properly, and then head home and get ready for the next day.

No one wants to have to get up when they're tired, rush to their workplace, and repeat the same routines while doing tedious actions. I'm sure they'd rather relax somewhere, have fun with their friends and families, and sleep when they feel they need to. But that's not the way the world is.

I know some people have it easy where they just party everyday and they feel gracing people with their presence is a hard job that's needed. But there are also people who work rigorously in jobs that aid us everyday. Doctors, teachers, farmers, etc.

I suppose the point of this poem was that everyone has it hard. Most of which is unfair. But what could be done about it? We do what we can to get by. But we should treat each other with fairness and kindness in the least. Because all of us (well most of us who might not be in a millionaire family who already has enough money to live on) need a job to get by and support ourselves. There is no reason to let these things separate us. Some people feel divided by status. Such as poor and middle class. Or even standing in comparison to the wealthy. We are all people with needs. If we let classifications divide us it's not much different from being divided by race and opinions/values.

If we all had kindess for each other and worked together then maybe things wouldn't be as bad and cruel and unfair as they are now. Even though there is most likely to always be someone who's greedy or arrogant who will try to stay ontop, if many of us at least tried to get along, I still believe things would be better than the current situation where the government and the people are playing the "blame game" and it's "every man for themself".

My Experience: I don't have one yet. But I say what I see. I have family members who have jobs. The media always tries to display how life is. Even if it's exaggerated, people can't make what they don't know or haven't seen before.