For I Have Done Good Work

Sometimes we suppose that other people’s work is easier than ours. We may sometimes suppose that some occupations, some assignments are always glamorous and exciting. But of this we may be sure: There is no one whose occupation is free from problems, and there is no profession which does not require preparation, no position which doesn’t require tedious routine and repetition at times. “There are dirty jobs, dull jobs, devastating jobs,” said Channing Pollock, “but I think there can be few, even of these, that do not give some return outside of the pay-envelope…. The unhappiest people I know,” he continued, “are the idle people. I’ve seen them all over the world,…fighting boredom…chasing sunshine…. I never can understand why so many of us are actually afraid of work…. Nobody ever did anything well, or got anywhere, without joy in his job,… It seems to me sometimes that [our] greatest contribution to life [is] our conception of labor as something dignified and desirable for everyone…. We can have neither progress nor prosperity, neither opportunity nor democracy, while any considerable number of us regard work as an enemy.” Life was made for doing, for learning, for action, for activity, for being a productive, creative, participating part. The body, the muscles, the mind, were made to use and not to waste away. Leisure is not the ultimate end or the ideal. And there is no person who receives full satisfaction from his work who always feels that he is doing someone else a favor, when, in fact, the opportunity to work is essential to life’s satisfaction⎯and even to salvation in the fullest sense. “Work is a spiritual necessity.” “I know what happiness is,” said Robert Louis Stevenson, “for I have done good work.”