Unfinished musings
Jul. 25th, 2005 08:12 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
susandennisLast week ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
henare posted a poll asking people if they lived to work or worked to live. Predictably, he got more of the work to live variety. (And then even questioned if the others read the question right.)
I didn't answer because, well, I'm still thinking about it.
There have been long stretches in my past when the answer was clear cut. I lived to work. No doubt about it. I was my work and I loved it. I distinctly remember being annoyed on Friday nights when everyone went home. And I remembered resenting needing to sleep during the week. Really, seriously. It's true.
I hit a patch of this when I was speech writing - actually two of them in two different speech writing jobs. And I ran into it for a small bit at both startup companies I worked for. And there were bits in between.
During these times, I always felt strong and valued and smart and productive and happy. Mostly the money I made did not matter except as a performance thermometer.
These days, I guess it would be most fair to say that I work to pay Sheri. But, even that is short term. I twiddled the numbers the other day and figured out that at my current course and speed, I can pay off the 5 year equity loan I got last April in May of next year and still have a good ready cash cushion in savings.
I don't think I, even yet, work to live. If I had enough money to live like I wanted and do what I wanted, I suspect, I would still do some kind of work for pay. Probably not full time and probably not much pay but something. I just realistically cannot envision not. On Sunday nights, I'm ready for the Monday morning bus and my desk and my job. If I didn't have that, I'm not entirely sure how I would cope.
I know I'm in the minority and anyone reading this is probably just shaking their head in disbelief. I get that. But I also know that the few times in my life when I have been without a job have been the most frustrating and rootless and boring times I've ever spent.
henare posted a poll asking people if they lived to work or worked to live. Predictably, he got more of the work to live variety. (And then even questioned if the others read the question right.)I didn't answer because, well, I'm still thinking about it.
There have been long stretches in my past when the answer was clear cut. I lived to work. No doubt about it. I was my work and I loved it. I distinctly remember being annoyed on Friday nights when everyone went home. And I remembered resenting needing to sleep during the week. Really, seriously. It's true.
I hit a patch of this when I was speech writing - actually two of them in two different speech writing jobs. And I ran into it for a small bit at both startup companies I worked for. And there were bits in between.
During these times, I always felt strong and valued and smart and productive and happy. Mostly the money I made did not matter except as a performance thermometer.
These days, I guess it would be most fair to say that I work to pay Sheri. But, even that is short term. I twiddled the numbers the other day and figured out that at my current course and speed, I can pay off the 5 year equity loan I got last April in May of next year and still have a good ready cash cushion in savings.
I don't think I, even yet, work to live. If I had enough money to live like I wanted and do what I wanted, I suspect, I would still do some kind of work for pay. Probably not full time and probably not much pay but something. I just realistically cannot envision not. On Sunday nights, I'm ready for the Monday morning bus and my desk and my job. If I didn't have that, I'm not entirely sure how I would cope.
I know I'm in the minority and anyone reading this is probably just shaking their head in disbelief. I get that. But I also know that the few times in my life when I have been without a job have been the most frustrating and rootless and boring times I've ever spent.
