wealth and chickens
Amigos,
Julia, you beat me! Now this will be even more irrelevant than it already was. No matter though, I will say it anyway. These are the remnants of my thoughts on the work ethic stuff. More soon on how I am pretty sure I have never "worked up to my potential," as they say on elementary school report cards.
I sometimes wonder (idly) what I would do if I were wealthy enough that I never needed to work (as it is defined in my life currently - for someone else for a small paycheck). Usually, I think that I would continue to work, probably in a low paying field where I would feel good about myself, but not as good about myself as I might feel if I could not actually afford to work in that field and were therefore sacrificing for the greater good (and my own ego). That is another topic. Other times though, I think maybe I would be able to find the one thing that I am brilliant at, that is completely fulfilling and my true calling (I know - not actually a thing) if I didn't have to work.
Reading those articles about people (rich or poor) who don't have jobs leaves me with one overwhelming reaction: think of all the time! All the time those people have to do whatever they want! Sure, some people probably just watch The Real Housewives of Any Given City all day long, but other people write screenplays or start innovative companies or grow magnificent gardens or I don't even know. And that's the thing, I don't even know what I might be capable of if I had those 40 extra hours each week to myself. When I take a step back and really think about myself, I know that I will always do better in a structured environment. I thrive in the workplace and generally struggle to accomplish anything substantial on my own time. Still, I will always be a little bit curious.
It seems like Rita would define anything constructive I did with my theoretical 40 hours a week as "work" though, and I would mostly agree, so my daydreaming is not totally relevant to our topic. Whoops.
As for my parents' chickens, some of their eggs can be seen here (my Brooklyn cousin's cooking/baking blog). There are currently eight hens living in a chicken coop my dad built in the back of their garage. When they are turned loose they eat the compost in the garden and chase each other around the yard. Turns out chickens are pretty hilarious.
xoxo,
gossip girl
posted by Becky @ 5:30 PM
3 Comments:
If I were rich and didn't have to work, I would probably watch the Food Network all day and bake muffins. Better that I am employed.
Although, maybe I would travel a lot and blog about it and that would be great. I could also rack up master's degrees in interesting subjects. I could also eat at really expensive restaurants (not in DC) and blog about those too.
I wish I were rich!
Those are just eggs! I want to see the chickens!
Also, I was going to talk about the retirement thing too, but it was getting long. I really don't understand why people retire. Ok, I understand why people whose jobs suck/are very stressful retire. But, assuming an average life expectancy of about 80, people who retire at 60 have 20 freakin' years of doing nothing but stealing part of my paycheck to pay their bills. 20 years! That's like if we did nothing for the entire part of our live that we can actually remember! Can you imagine how terrible 20 years of nothingness would be? I also think I would keep working in some capacity, if only out of feelings of guilt and uselessness. I do understand though that not working (not necessarily in the sense of being woefully unemployed, but in the sense of having leisure) is sometimes a catalyst for a Great Idea that becomes a book or screenplay or magnificent garden, but I think that also stems from an urge to be productive even without external structure, so yes, I would still classify that as working. (I find, for example, that when I have absolutely nothing to do, I suddenly become a prolific but, unfortunately, awful fiction writer. However, I have not been bored like that for years.) But Food Network watching--not so much.
Also, this blogging is going so fast! Ahh!
I want to see the chickens, too!
As yet, because I live in $%##$^#$%^-ing Brooklyn, and the chickens live very far away, we are still conducting an exchange of diplomatic gifts. Soon, I will be sending liveried footmen with tubs of compost for their delectation, and then our ambassadors will meet (actually Matt has met them, so that might be considered accomplished), and then, only then, will there be a state visit with press photo ops. So it goes.
Ladies, this is a very interesting blog. Your prose is putting my food obsessed scrawlings to shame. I'll be back to follow events shortly.
Katya
(Becky's Brookyn cousin)
(Don't misconstrue, Brooklyn is wonderful, it's just hard, though not impossible, to keep chickens here. Beehives are also outlawed in NYC boundaries, although there is a reasonably hands-off enforcement policy on that one.)
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