There is something to be said for employment, whether as employer or employee. Employment offers a place to be every day, a place where there is a purpose. It might be to cook hamburger patties or to install windshields or to teach advanced calculus or to exchange goods for money in a retail store. Whatever it is, it provides a reason to focus one’s attention and it gives a target for that attention.
Absent employment, one create one’s own purpose. For some people, that may involve a surrogate, like volunteering as a caregiver in a nursing home or as a welcome ambassador in an airport. For others, it might be engaging in a hobby. But for some, creating purpose seems to take on the characteristics of an almost insurmountable obstacle. It’s like entering adolescence and having no idea what to expect, other than fear and impossibilities.
I think there’s a reason the obstacles arise. They result from a refusal to compromise on one’s expectations. The world isn’t as we might wish it to be; if we refuse to accept things that vary from our expectations or demands, we create our own obstacles. If the purpose one might attempt to choose is out of alignment with reality, the options are to change the purpose or to refuse to budge, becoming frustrated and angry in the process.
Back to employment, though. If the purpose the employment provides is not aligned with one’s expectations or desires, the options are to move along to more suitable employment or to realign one’s expectations and desires. Or, of course, to be intransigent, becoming frustrated and angry in the process.
There’s much more to be said about all this, but I’m not saying it. Not now.
