The Comma

Last week I got to hear Alain de Botton at the Central Library speak about his new book,  The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work.  What most of us do between say, 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. is a great mystery.  What are people doing in all those offices?  What is it like at home with moms and dads at home caring for their children?   What is any day for any one of us really like?  For all of us, whether we are paid for it or not, there is “work” that we do.  We type at keyboards.  We drive.  We attend meetings.  We negotiate.  We figure things out.  We do all sorts of things.  Through our work, Alain de Botton believes, we become more fully human. 

Through work we gain an identity – or lack of identity.  Through our work we have the opportunity to do something of meaning.   To do what most of us say we want to do – to make a difference, to alleviate suffering or to increase pleasure for others.  To make life a little better.  To create things that are better than we are.  Work is essential for the “good life” we all long for.  Indeed, I have witnessed that those who have done “retirement” best are those who have not “retired” – but used this new stage of life to share what they have learned, to continue to do what they love, to make a difference in the world. 

But for something so important as our work, there is a curious silence about it.  If you looked at the top fiction best sellers, you’d think most human beings sit around thinking about love, falling in and out of love, in and out of relationship with their families and contemplating murder.  Rarely do the stories we read talk about what we all DO during this time of day called “work”.  We have job titles that few understand.   Desks or workspaces that few closest to us have even seen.   Hours we spend during the day which are a mystery to those we love.  When we go on vacation, we visit museums and restaurants and parks but we don’t go visit the places where people spend most of their days – those places we work.   

After he completed his university degree, Alain couldn’t find work.  And someone told him, “Do what you love”.  So he did.  He wrote a book.  And he’s been wondering about big questions and talking to interesting people and writing books ever since.   For him, doing what he loved was the way he found as well to make a living and live his life.  I told him that he is one of the creative thinkers our world really needs and asked him, “Where did you learn to be a creative thinker?  What keeps you at it?   What keeps you growing in your creativity?”  He said that he isn’t creative all the time.  Sometimes he too hides behind his own fears.  But then he remembers.  “Do what you love.”  Then he remembers, “Life is short.  Live it now.”