I sure have been busy. No time to write and I realize that my time is limited, after all. Opportunity cost is something I very much have to keep in mind. Do this, and you are not able to do that. Still.
I also realize that I am walking towards the fork in the road. To where shall I go? The wide or strait? The well trod or not taken?
A managing director of a hotel once told me how an employee he interviewed asked if she could take less pay in return for less working hours. He explained that for his generation, that would have been unthinkable. Money > Time.
And perhaps it is with this new generation, me included. We are more well off (thank you, parents) and so would rather trade money for time.
I worked in two MNCs. One almost the complete contrast of the other. The first was populated with a (mainly) older workforce. They were the definition of workaholics and would give me frowns when I left at 7 sharp. They would put in 16 hour days and a few could even be found there on weekends - voluntarily, without any overtime. This company had a truly dedicated workforce (as for me, hahaha).
The other was composed of younger people - mostly around my age. They would work their hardest to work the least. The management (which always changed) always looked upon what they saw with frustration. Almost everyday they would call a meeting and yell at everyone. Nothing changed.
So two different cultures - was an age a factor? I don't know and won't generalize. Still, I am of the latter generation. I would rather be at home, sitting and reading a book (or doing nothing) than toiling away in front of a computer earning overtime.
I look at some of my peers who are earning much more and wouldn't mind joining them. Money, especially a lot of it, would be nice. I did earn good money (for a young, entry level worker), but could only describe the work as "soul crushing". It wasn't hard, just deadening.
I'm now working in a job which does pay me less, but in return I get to work less. I like it; not just the free time, but the job (actually, it's not really a job) is something I actually kind of enjoy. But nobody would consider it something permanent. I must earn more and I must start a family and so must earn even more and so on and on.
This is one justification I give to explain my career choice. Now another.
You see, I believe that our souls are immortal. Death is not the cessation of existence. And so my worldview is thoroughly shaped by this belief. Whatever we do here has - no matter how small - eternal significance.
So inevitably, when I look at the accountant or the lawyer or the aircraft pilot or even the doctor (bless all of them) I see something quite trivial. Now I am not saying that what they do is trivial (although I would say that if you do not believe in an afterlife then they are even more trivial), but for me to do that is something I find personally repugnant.
And so, while the ordinary man strives to feed his wife and child I wonder about the meaning of it all with existential dread and childlike delight.
