The choice wouldn't be so hard if companies paid enough to live comfortably but most don't. So it's not just do what you love and starve or get a job that eats your soul but pays your bills. For a lot of people, it's work a job that eats your soul and still struggle to make ends meet.
I haven't commented in a long time. It felt good to relate to and enjoy your writing. A refresh from the doomscrolling and protesting I've been doing. Thank you, Michelle.
I have had so many jobs that sucked badly but I gritted my teeth and endured for the sake of my family. Now I don't have to do that anymore. But I do skirt the boredom issue every week. There are days I tell myself I need to find more to do, then I tell myself, I supposed to be retired.
I told myself I wanted to write stories a couple of years ago, and I did. I wrote some short stories that few people liked. Then I wrote a dystopian fiction that few know about (I'm working on that). I am still struggling with the concept that I don't need to work a 40+ hour a week job anymore. Working for just a few hours a week is okay. That's something I think I will struggle with for a few more years yet. And I also need to get back to work on the sequel to my first book. I am up to chapter 6 so far.
It’s weird to me. That paradox you mentioned - where someone who gets a windfall (or retires) - goes back to work to ‘have something to do.’ We need occupation, I suppose, something to occupy our minds or hands or bodies. Does that need to be work? Trading our labor for money? And “benefits”? Is it possible for regular humans to trade our labor for money and love the work that someone else has arranged for us and compensates with money? Getting very theoretically Marxist here, sorry. My job complicates things. Many joys have come and gone, too fleeting. Paycheck has been happening, plus health insurance. But/and: it’s been impossible to love the structure, architecture, and administration of my job, work site, industry, etc.
I would love to watch more great movies, listen to more great music, read more great books, write more, cook more, see friends more, travel more, pet more dogs, ride my bike more, swim more, talk to people more, play with children more, garden more, create more ... I would happily fill my days. I am never bored.
Exactly! I did it years ago, and all I discovered was....do not pander to the masses. Keep writing, creating, and never wonder who will pay you. Then you will write the stuff that matters. One more point, I found a paying writing job that mattered to me. I found in it something to help others. It was enough at the time.
The choice wouldn't be so hard if companies paid enough to live comfortably but most don't. So it's not just do what you love and starve or get a job that eats your soul but pays your bills. For a lot of people, it's work a job that eats your soul and still struggle to make ends meet.
The worst of all worlds
I haven't commented in a long time. It felt good to relate to and enjoy your writing. A refresh from the doomscrolling and protesting I've been doing. Thank you, Michelle.
Oh, hi there!
As the Dutch article proved, Sex sells...
And ‘teenage sex’ at that..!
I have had so many jobs that sucked badly but I gritted my teeth and endured for the sake of my family. Now I don't have to do that anymore. But I do skirt the boredom issue every week. There are days I tell myself I need to find more to do, then I tell myself, I supposed to be retired.
I told myself I wanted to write stories a couple of years ago, and I did. I wrote some short stories that few people liked. Then I wrote a dystopian fiction that few know about (I'm working on that). I am still struggling with the concept that I don't need to work a 40+ hour a week job anymore. Working for just a few hours a week is okay. That's something I think I will struggle with for a few more years yet. And I also need to get back to work on the sequel to my first book. I am up to chapter 6 so far.
It’s weird to me. That paradox you mentioned - where someone who gets a windfall (or retires) - goes back to work to ‘have something to do.’ We need occupation, I suppose, something to occupy our minds or hands or bodies. Does that need to be work? Trading our labor for money? And “benefits”? Is it possible for regular humans to trade our labor for money and love the work that someone else has arranged for us and compensates with money? Getting very theoretically Marxist here, sorry. My job complicates things. Many joys have come and gone, too fleeting. Paycheck has been happening, plus health insurance. But/and: it’s been impossible to love the structure, architecture, and administration of my job, work site, industry, etc.
I would love to watch more great movies, listen to more great music, read more great books, write more, cook more, see friends more, travel more, pet more dogs, ride my bike more, swim more, talk to people more, play with children more, garden more, create more ... I would happily fill my days. I am never bored.
You touch a nerve. But, I want to warn, if you try to do something you love for money, your muse will desert you.
It hasn’t so far … maybe because I’m barely making anything!
Exactly! I did it years ago, and all I discovered was....do not pander to the masses. Keep writing, creating, and never wonder who will pay you. Then you will write the stuff that matters. One more point, I found a paying writing job that mattered to me. I found in it something to help others. It was enough at the time.