Living, Working & Dying

We are born, we live a life, we die. Inescapable facts. Our lives are the jam in the sandwich between the basic bread of birth & death. The important part is the life we live. I believe that once it's over, it is over. What remains is the memories of how we lived in people we knew. Eventually that too will fade.

So what are we here for?

We have mental & physical capacities. Some of us are blessed with greater capacities than others. They are the tools we are given at birth. We learn, we grow & develop into adults. Do we use our gifts wisely & for the benefit of others? Do we live selfishly for our own benefit? Do we squander our talents? The parable of the Talents in Matthew & Luke tells believers to use their gifts. To work. 

How do we see work? Is it simply as something to earn a livlihood? Or do we see it as something to enable us to achieve something, to help our community?

Have we become a sick society? There are approximately 1.44 million unemployed people in the UK early this year. In 2020 there were 1.84 million. In 2019 10% of adults had never had a job. More than one in five working-age adults in the UK were not actively looking for work this March.

The bare statistics need to be investigated. How many of the unemployed are students in education? How many are suffering from chronic medical conditions & are so disabled that they cannot work? Are any temporary residents? Politicians need to identify the root causes of the statistics & they need to have a plan to deal with however many people could work, but don't. Demonizing the unemployed is not an acceptable strategy. 

In order for the UK Plc to function people who can work need to work, for a variety of reasons;-

• To make money & be independent. Money for food, for rent, and to enjoy their lives.
• To have a sense of pride and self-satisfaction by supporting yourself & family.
• Work is one of the primary ways we gain meaning in life - a sense of purpose.
• Work benefits our potential - it often defines who we are - e.g. vocational professions.
• Work benefits our emotional, physical & social well being.

At the tail end of my life I'm glad that I was a teacher. I got huge satisfaction from working with children & other teachers. I'm also glad that when I had to take early retirement on medical grounds in my 40's that I engaged in many interesting & challenging volunteering jobs. I have always felt there was a reason to get out of bed in the morning. 

 

If your day is filled with nothing satisfying you are diminished as an individual. One of my father's more irritating sayings was "it passes the time". Life is about more than just passing the time. 

We can & should  all contribute something. We all have value, we just need to use it.