Today
is Day Six of Week Four of the Omer. That is Twenty-seven Days of the
Omer. The Theme continues to be Happiness.
I’ve been a hard-working, burn-the-candle-at-both-ends kind of guy
for a good portion of my life. It’s not
that I don’t know how to relax; I can chill with the best of them. But if my ‘chill times’ are not an interlude
between periods of intense activity, then I don’t feel fulfilled. To illustrate, I’ve often bristled at the
inactivity that vacations bring. For the
first day or two, it’s great. No
responsibilities! No schedule! And then I start climbing the walls. If it isn’t an active vacation, where I get
to do physical activities – and mild physical activities are fine, they don’t
have to be strenuous or adrenalin-inducing – then I don’t return home rested. Instead, on sedentary vacations I tend to
overeat, and I return home frustrated.
This has changed a bit now that I’m speeding toward the end of my
sixth decade of life. I’ve learned to
take things a little slower. But work
has always defined me that way that it does many men, perhaps generally more
than women. I’ve always thrived best when
I’ve felt needed by a variety of people, for a variety of reasons. Why else would someone become a Rabbi, after
all?
It’s no secret that work often leads to Happiness. I know I’m not the only one who has always
felt happiest when I’ve had satisfaction from my work. I’ve never been unemployed in my adult life,
except for very short periods or when I’ve been studying, and even then I
worked part-time. When I was in
rabbinical school, except the first year, I had all kinds of part-time
jobs. When I was in graduate school, I
was a prison chaplain.
But I know people who have been unemployed for extended periods: even years.
And I see how being unemployed, wears a person down over time. Of course there’s the stress of diminished
finances. But that’s not the entire
story. Unemployment itself is a weight
that can and does interfere with Happiness.
I’ve seen people who were reasonably happy when employed, turn to misery
when unemployed for more than a short period.
It’s anecdotal evidence of the phenomenon to be sure, but it’s powerful evidence
nonetheless.
We have a tendency to think of our employment primarily in terms of
providing us with the parnassah, or income, to live. And of course, that’s natural. Anybody (especially a man) who lacks a drive
to provide for themselves and their family, is missing something
important. Of course, for some that
drive produces more success than for others.
But the drive itself is more important than the success. And the way that we respond to that drive
gives an important glimpse into the soul of the person.
But our work is much more than a way to pay the bills. At least, I’m asserting that it aught to
be. I’ve written before about the need
to answer one’s individual calling. It
goes without saying that one must first find one’s calling. I’ve personally been blessed in that my calling
and my career have, for most of my life, been one and the same. No everybody has this advantage. I know of people who have trained hard for
lucrative careers which, in the end, provided them with a good living but
little fulfillment. I’m talking about
lawyers and dentists, for example. Not
that one cannot find one’s calling at the bar or in dentistry. Rather, the people I’m talking about pursued
those professions for their rewards but the most important reward – work satisfaction
– eluded them.
So, for those who cannot point to the activity that pays the rent
and the groceries, and think of it as a calling, it is necessary to find
the satisfaction that comes from fulfilling one’s calling, in ‘off-duty’
activities.
But even if one cannot see one’s work as a calling, that
does not diminish the importance of work in one’s life. Work is ennobling. Instead of seeing it as something we simply
have to do in order to enjoy our leisure, we should see it as a ticket to
self-esteem. To purpose in life. To Happiness.
If you follow my writing, you’re aware of my skepticism concerning
the modern Welfare State. I know that a
few of my readers are dependent upon Centrelink to survive. (For my
non-Australian readers, that is the central address for social services and
benefits in this country.) And when I criticise
this system, I hope I don’t sound heartless and as if I want people who depend
on these benefits to be homeless. I don’t. But I also don’t want people to be hopeless,
and hopelessness is a trait I see in most people I meet, who are long-term
beneficiaries of the state’s largesse.
It’s unfortunate that the very system intended to give people a safety
net, usually entangles them in its web of long-term dependency.
The Welfare State is just one aspect of the Nanny State that kills
initiative and creativity in its drive to protect us from ourselves. An American friend who has lived in Australia
for some time, described its effect to me thusly: A few years back, if someone jumped off a
bridge, people would shake their heads and say, ‘Poor Sod.’ Now they spend millions putting nets on the
bridges so that people can’t jump off. Look,
as a religious Jew I don’t want people to commit suicide by any means,
jumping off bridges included. But the
state’s purpose is to protect us from aggressor nations and to keep public
order. It isn’t to take the risk out of
life, period.
And lest you think I’m being overly critical of Australia,
understand that Australia is simply going – has gone! – in the same
direction, in this respect, as virtually all of Western Europe. And in truth, America is not far behind. During the 1990’s, a rare period of cooperation
between the [Clinton] White House and the [Republican] Congress, produced a
raft of great programs which got people off public assistance and back to work. But the past decade or so has seen the
re-emergence of the Welfare State and its culture of entitlement in the USA.
It’s Thursday once more; with sunset today begins erev Shabbat, the
eve of the Sabbath. Shabbat has meaning
because it offers a time-out from our normal work and activities. It gives us a means to refresh ourselves and
examine, among other things, the work we do the rest of the week – and ask
ourselves if we’ve found meaning in that work.
The Sabbath provides us with a glimpse of Olam Haba – of the
World to Come, where we’ll be freed from the need to earn a living. But Olam Hazeh – this world –
is made for work. And that need not be
seen as a prison. There are days when I,
like you, would prefer not to have to go to work. But when I think of a life without work, I wonder
about the difficulty of finding meaning in life. Shabbat shalom.
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