When I was a kid, I liked to work in the yard with my Dad.
Raking leaves into piles and then transferring them into a red wheelbarrow were two of my favorite outdoor chores with him. We had a compost pile where the leaves were dumped and eventually turned into rich dark soil for the summer vegetable garden. Dad modeled the value of working with my hands and to be proud of taking care of our home. It doesn’t take much for me all these years later to conjure the smell of the fallen leaves mixed with the sharp crisp air of New York autumn. To this day, raking leaves remains a chore I don’t mind.
I was twelve when I got my first paid job outside the home. I was hired to do light cleaning for a woman in my church who lived in a big home overlooking Long Island Sound. What I remember most about that job aside from the cash I received at the end of each session was the enormous amount of glass her house contained. I spent the majority of my time cleaning windows, mirrors, and shelves that lined the extensive wet bar adjacent to her living room. Each time I returned, all that glass needed to be wiped clean again. I didn’t understand how it could get so dirty in the two short weeks since I’d been there last.
Baby sitting jobs gave me pocket money until I was old enough by law to get a “real” job. For nearly two years I worked as a bus girl in a high end steak and seafood restaurant in my town. I worked long shifts on the weekends for minimum wage plus tips. The work was hard and physically demanding. I was on my feet all night and among other basic duties associated with my role, I had to carry large trays of dirty dishes to the kitchen once patrons were finished eating several times in one night. My body always ached the next day, but again, I loved earning money and the feeling of accomplishment that came from working.
According to Sigmund Freud and many other well known philosophers and social scientists, our ability to love and work is deeply connected to our degree of happiness and satisfaction with life. While work may take on many forms depending on era, culture, and a variety of other factors, the fact remains that work is good for us. It’s in our DNA.
We live in a time when we have access to more conveniences designed to make our lives easier than ever before. What work looks like today is very different from what it looked like even as recently as one generation ago. But despite the advances we take for granted, work is still good and the need to do it never changes.
