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Not Living to Work
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Not Living to Work |
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Huan Yi Member Ascendant
since 2004-10-12
Posts 6688Waukegan 
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. How much do you think or feel you need to retire from what is no more than a job? What would you then do in that life after? . |
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hush Senior Member
since 2001-05-27
Posts 1653Ohio, USA |
A lot of people consider their life's work more than "just a job." If I was still DJ-ing at bars or working food service and someone offered early retirement... I'd say "Sure!" even in my 20's... possibly. I do suffer from a strong work ethic and a need to feel productive... But as someone with a career that I care about, I don't consider it "just a job." I don't think your question really applies in that case. Or did you intend it to? |
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Huan Yi Member Ascendant
since 2004-10-12
Posts 6688Waukegan |
No, if you truly enjoy the job, (and not because you wouldn't know what to do with yourself), and you think it worth the days out of the time you have left, then the question is not directed to you. I guess you're one of those who if they won Mega Millions would still show up on Monday. I'm not. John |
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Philmont Member
since 2004-01-10
Posts 61 |
Hey man life is all about survival. If you wanna quit your job fine. But life will end for you pretty quickly after that. Work is the best means we have to survive. |
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Edward Grim Senior Member
since 2005-12-18
Posts 1154Greenville, South Carolina |
Philly, So your argument is that to survive we must work, and since working is a means to obtain dough; you're saying that cash is the kit to survive? Hmm... By all means my man, I agree with you. Who wouldn't? But just because I agree doesn't mean it's right. And when I say that it's not right I don't mean factually, I mean on more of an ethical basis. Let's look at good ol' Uncle Sam or the lizards that pose as him anyways. They print the cash, distribute the cash, then ultimately get it back. Now let's think of how the process works. We use cash to buy everything. Nothing of value can be obtained without the godly dollar (unless it's a form of trade but let's forget that for now). Man, just read that! "THEY PRINTED IT!" Like a birthday card on your Lexmark! They print it. Just put a few symbols on a piece of cotton and it can used to rule the world. It's the ultimate scam. Then they get mad when people try to photocopy money. People get arrested for xeroxing cash and trying to use it. It's wrong. And yet, even though it's wrong, I'll hand the starbucks dude a fiver when I get my coffee in the morning. So you see, it is the Throat that swallows us and we are willing to be masticated and engulfed. It's a form of lovely sinking. And I said to the devil, "You better leave my spleen alone." |
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Huan Yi Member Ascendant
since 2004-10-12
Posts 6688Waukegan |
Philmont, I was unemployed for nearly two years not so long ago; for all the devotion and loyalty, Corporate America didn’t want me as well as countless others. Fortunately, I listened to my broker, (a good friend besides), and always treated part of my salary as an eventual severance package, again listening to the good advice of others. At the end of that time of unemployment I was consequently still financially better off than when I started. Now, while not rich, my current salary goes, in part, to further bulking that security and funding my foolish, however moderate, passion for art, ( I have no place now to hang or stand it). Life was always short, and people I knew are already gone. In my job, I’m not helping find a antidote for cancer or making the world safer for those who want no more than to live in peace without fear of a knock on the door. Given that, it seems at some point it will make no sense doing what I do for pay as opposed to perhaps spending what time I have, (while not yet devoted to a second childhood or hoping the doctor will find a cure), simply reading, which I enjoy, writing a poem or two, remembering personally in my history why one bothers at all, and getting, with dignity, ready for the end which will no doubt come. I just wondered if others had the same thought. John |
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Philmont Member
since 2004-01-10
Posts 61 |
So basically Edward you think that money is really a scam, and Huan you think that your humanity somehow entitles you to be treated with dignity. Edward, life itself is really a scam. It's a cosmic joke that was perpetrated by random chance, a better trickster than any god could be. Huan, you and me, like all artists and humans for that matter will pass into dust and be forgotten. Heck, the whole human race will, so fame really doesn't matter. Also, if you think there's something good in helping to cure cancer as opposed to working for a living, you might want to think twice. If you go on some moral crusade, trying to cure diseases or feed the poor, you're just increasing the resource base for the nasty big corporations. If more companies start up then that might be a good thing. Otherwise, the diseases you've eradicated will be replaced by poverty, hunger, and eventually death in finishing off the excess human resources. Funny, isn't it? You work to avoid hunger and death and stuff like that. But by curing cancer, aids, and countless other controllers of animal populations, you're really perpetuating those things. |
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serenity blaze Member Empyrean
since 2000-02-02
Posts 27738 |
I've had a job now for damned neared twenty years. Karen checked in, and did not check out. What I find interesting is that only the Federal Government defines what I did (and continue to do) as a job. This may well be the only thing that the government and I agree upon. I am a homemaker. I won't bore you with the list of mundane tasks, but trust me, it's frigging mundane. Measure the length of your leash, John. We'll compare later. OH. WAIT YER A BACHELOR. Mea culpa. |
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serenity blaze Member Empyrean
since 2000-02-02
Posts 27738 |
and gee, Philmont, I should retract my statement. I had no idea we are ALL suffering for ART.  |
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Huan Yi Member Ascendant
since 2004-10-12
Posts 6688Waukegan |
My best friend is a few months younger than I. A couple of years back he left a long and successful executive career with a manufacturing company, ( basic steel forming and bending), he had been with for over a quarter century because it was literally shortening his life. Not only that, there was the strong probability he would spend years blind before he drew his last breath. His health improved, and then though his finances and soon pension afford him the option to never work again, he accepted another high pressure position with a corporation. I haven’t asked him why, though I suspect the answer; he didn’t know what to do with himself without a structure that ostensibly rewarded his efforts. That’s the other side of the coin. I’ve known men dead within a year, of retirement at 62 or less , because they didn’t know what to with themselves, absent an organization telling and paying them . It’s like once you’ve become an ox there’s no escape short of death for all philosophy. |
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Essorant Member Elite
since 2002-08-10
Posts 4769Regina, Saskatchewan; Canada |
The sooner one gets out of a cesspool, the better. |
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