“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” — Confucius

At a Christmas dinner not so long ago, I dined near a doctor (the neighbor of our hosts.) Following some conversational trail I have long since forgotten, we arrived at the purpose of work. I took the position that it was possible, indeed it was nigh imperative, that one find work that was fulfilling and satisfying.

The good doctor had a different view. “Work,” he told me, “is what you do so that you can do the things you want to do. That’s why you get paid for it.” He mentioned his toys — a Surburban, ski trips, a second house — and said he kept working so he could enjoy them.

I told him I disagreed. We were in Chicago, so I took an example that was both local and universal. “What about Michael Jordan?” I asked. “Doesn’t he love what he does?” The man — whom by now I was quite glad was not my own M.D. — did not budge even on this obvious point.

This memory returned to me after I again viewed The War Room, a behind-the-scenes documentary of the 1992 Clinton race perfect for political junkies like myself. In one scene that some have called the “emotional heart” of the movie, a very moved James Carville rises and says:

There’s a simple doctrine. Outside of a person’s love, the most sacred thing that they can give is their labor. And somehow or another along the way we tend to forget that. Labor is a very precious thing that you have and any time that you can combine labor with love, you’ve made a merger.

It is my hope that I and those I care about can effect such a merger and gain joy from it.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 17th, 2002 at 7:55 pm and is filed under Miscellany.. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.