Contemplating the Luxury of Doing Just One Thing!
I'm sitting on a bench overlooking the bay, outside our local hospital. No, nothing dramatic... just taking in a bit of sun and fresh air while Mrs. Denmarkguy is inside at the minor emergency clinic having somebody take a look at an ear infection.
Whereas some people get very frustrated at the process of having to wait for something - anything - I tend to find it fairly relaxing and often a good time for contemplation. Perhaps that's merely a reflection of the fact that one of the things I've always been really good at is "contemplation!"
So I sit here and watch the comings and goings; my little bench is not far from the Emergency Center where the ambulances arrive, and I also watch the comings and goings of hospital workers and delivery people and parcel services and what have you.
I look at the world and the people in it and sometimes I contemplate the reality of having the "luxury" of doing just one thing.
I watched somebody push a large laundry cart past my spot, going from the upper parking lot to the lower parking lot, and wondered what life would it be like if all you had to do was pick up laundry, get it cleaned and redeliver it in clean condition to some predestined place? That's all you do day after day. How would that life feel?
Don't get me wrong, I chose my hodgepodge multiple-channel life voluntarily, and I'm typically fairly content with it. However, there are a moments when I wonder what things would be like if I had instead chosen a single path and just been satisfied with showing up somewhere, doing what I was told for 40 or 50 hours a week, collecting a check and going home again.
Of course, I would likely be in the same boat as the many who are gradually coming to the realization that "one job is not enough" to survive, in 2023. At least not if you're a typical "hourly worker."
Maybe it's just a natural part of the human condition that we find ourselves periodically wondering about what it would be like to have a life that is not the same as our own current life.
I also find myself pondering such possibilities in the context of the fact that the life I have actually managed to create over the past 40 years is enormously different from anything I visualized when I was a teenager and subsequently a college student.
My work life started "badly," in the sense that I was generally seen to be "overqualified" for what I wanted to do, and I had little interest (mostly for "stress" reasons) in the jobs open to me, based on what others perceived my abilities to be.
Thinking back on that reminds me of the time a friend — who also happened to be working as a "work purpose coach" — pointed out to me that I seemed to be following a pattern of deliberately UNDERemploying myself.
Maybe it was her way of gently pointing out that I seemed unmotivated and lazy! I took no offense...
And with that thought, I've been "beeped" to come to the door and pick up my other half!
Thanks for reading, and have a great rest of your week!
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Created at 2023-07-31 20:36 PDT
0905/2160
Miserable. The opposite of happiness is boredom.
Goes to show the different temperaments of us all! I find a great deal of comfort and peace of mind in consistency and constance, but I also recognize I'm likely in the minority!
I've had plenty of menial jobs. The hardest part is coping with the fact that you're likely not passionate about what you're doing. That's how I feel at least. Boredom is secondary to this, because it's likely there isn't much of a better option for employment at that moment in time.
We have more things in common, @denmarkguy as I have often (almost always) been overqualified for the roles I've applied for and done, and have been deliberately "underemployed" for most of my adult life. I don't know what the former is about (lacking confidence?) but I think the latter is smart! No one really wants to work that hard. !LOL
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Ah, yes! I'm definitely disinclined towards working, at least "for its own sake!" Not to say that I don't work; I work a lot but would just as well not. And yes, I think that's where the tendency to stay underemployed comes from... it allowed me to "skate through" most situations without having to put in much effort.
I was once told I couldn't work at Walmart, years ago, for the same reason. I was a single mom, living in Ohio with three kids, and because I'd run restaurants and managed theatres, I was over qualified for a manager position. In retrospect, I don't regret it.
But at the time? I was so blown away I think I wept a little and considered lying about myself in the future. I didn't.
I became a broker instead. LOL!
Brilliant! A broker sounds like a much better career move for someone so driven.
Is that what you still do now?
I'm so glad you shared that "hidden" nook in the corner of the Hospital Universe. Not that I plan to spend much time there at all, but never the less, it's good to know about it.
Thank you for being a polymath with me. I love our life of "patchwork economics" as busy at it is. We never really do get a day off, but I'd not change it.