Answered Questions X – Ora et labora

Pray and Work. Working dignifies your spirit. Or so they say. It is not bad as a mantra, but a review of this postulate does not seem inappropriate. If I ask, What do you work for? "For the money, of course” Many will say. Others, more fortunate ones, will add: “for personal fulfillment, to be useful to society, by vocation, to contribute to progress and so and so”. Well, let's take a look at the guts of such claims.

If we understand that contribution to progress, society, researching vocations, teaching, studying, are things that in any case you could do equally and without any further obligation, for free, then the only reason left to work for is necessarily... for the money. Let's be honest. It should be no shame. True, if you are also rewarded in other ways the better, more interesting and enriching will the hours you invest. But those who say they do their work only by their willingness to serve (like many politicians), what foolishness! So is everyone else, in our work, we have no desire to give service? Some serve a community, others to a company and its shareholders and customers, but we all do it at the end of the day for a fee. The difference in any case is who we choose to serve. Of course, willingly to do it well.



There are those who say that if they had a fortune, would still work. Well, maybe, but let us be precise: What you do, without requiring any reward for it, is either a hobby or an act of solidarity, but we can not call it work. Still, many would opt for paid work (apparently redundant term, as seen above); they would continue working as if nothing had happened, what can be done otherwise? I trust them. Because, what if our whole life has revolved around the fact that one must spend much of it working? What about the poor older retirees? When they get rejected for better or worse by our processing work system, find them often in small a crisis like: "I'm not productive, I have nothing to work on, and so I’m worth nothing." It takes them big efforts to change their minds and remember that in life there is life beyond work. But that is a matter of personal growth that will not touch here.

Finally there are those who indeed have fortunes, or relieved lives that would allow them to live without working, but still do. Without knowing them well (I wish I would), I guess that their motivation may respond to three different causes, namely:

1. as previously noted, they see no other possible occupation,
2. or those who are educated in the desire for growth think they will never have enough
3. or their reputation, power and influence status provide them the perfect excuse to exercise a perverse pleasure, i.e. control, manage and sponsor groups of people (I say perverse, because even though this exercise may very noble, often becomes a dangerous act of vanity and ego)

In today's society we need to work. We need to work and if anyone believes that working is not so dignifying, that seems shameful thing to do, or a clear proof of laziness. Furthermore, that who thinks that working is neither good nor desirable, and does not live on incomes, has a serious problem I would say, a serious personal conflict to be resolved.

But the "ora et labora" for now is a unique voice, and as I always say, in human affairs no one is completely right. So another voice was needed, which will expand in another post.