____ YOUR DAY JOB

This week I was in San Marcos, Texas on business and I had the privilege of taking a couple of yoga classes while in town. There on the mat next to me was a pretty fit college chick with a shirt that said in bold block letters “QUIT YOUR DAY JOB”

My first thought was “Rock on, girly! Fight the power!” There were long stretches of my youth where the working world was the most obvious self-crafted prison conceivable. And imagining the likely lifestyle of the young yogi next to me tapped into reserves of equal parts empathy and nostalgia for a time when I too could dive headlong into any adventure with total abandon of responsibilities or worldly hangups.

The message also made me think of the many youtube videos I’ve seen in circulation that beat a drum announcing that your life is happening now, and you SHOULD be off traveling the world in Patagonia parkas and La Sportiva booties. I could not agree more that any young person coming into adulthood should seriously consider departing from the prescribed path to find what’s waiting out there beyond their cultural-blinders… But to be youtubing or in this case, shirtting to the world that everyone should quit their day job is akin to strutting into an Eskimo village in a down jacket holding a sign that says FUR IS MURDER.

A quick glance around reveals a world of people working to survive and as dismal as that fact may seem – to me it holds a certain beautiful simplicity. I’m sure this flight attendant walking down the aisle politely taking everyone’s drink order can’t wait to take off his silly apron, loose his tie and peel off that character like a damp sweat suit… But I’m sure thankful he’s here bringing me a coffee. I’m similarly glad the pilots didn’t see that yogi-gal’s shirt and are up there seriously considering parachuting from their posts, leaving 126 passengers to quickly come up with a Plan B.

All around are people doing jobs they may rather not in silent service to this crazy collective creature that is all of us. The food you ate today was grown by someone, harvested by someone, milled and packaged and shipped by someone, driven by someone, bought by someone, sold by someone to you. Your very body, your mind, your thoughts, your joys and loves and dreams – rest on a mountain of effort and sweat by people who you’ve never seen.

Speaking as one who has been on both sides – having existed both in and out of society’s flow – I can only feel profound respect and thankfulness for both parties. Much of our best art, thinking, philosophy and the very seeds of cultural regeneration are sewn off the beaten path by people who are afforded the opportunity to shed their responsibilities and go wide-eyed into mystery. At the same time, the very fabric of our existence is stitched together by trillions of animate do-ers, everyday working to support families and cultures and the dreams of our species.

Both branches stem from the same tree, rooted in the same inherent rightness of this whole crazy tangled human happening.

So…
I certainly don’t fault a young person for declaring what is so obvious, golden and clear. “Get out there and LIVE, damnit!” “Be Here Now!” “Carpe diem” “This is IT” and it is!…. But to anyone sitting in a cubicle watching a youtube video etching those sayings on your soul… Relax. The same “Here Now” is here now wherever you happen to be.

Besides, that person telling you to quit your job might be serveing your coffee tomorrow ; )