What exactly is “meaningful employment”. “Meaningful” as defined by Mirriam-Webster is to have purpose, meaning. “Employment” is defined as use or purpose, activity in which one engages. We, as a society have a different definition that sounds a lot closer to being paid big bucks to do a job when in reality a job is a job. Whether or not it is “meaningful” is defined solely by the person who is performing the job, isn’t it?
I am currently seeking employment and whether or not it is “meaningful” does not matter. Work is work and money earned is still money earned. I actually have a part time job that starts tomorrow and although it may look like I’ve lost all self respect I feel pretty good about it.
Seriously where can you get a job that pays $10.00 and hour to get a little exercise without signing up to be some sort of hyper instructor for a bunch of sweaty, grunting people. This job is a once a week 2 hour gig that will finally get me off my lazy little ass and it pays. The fact that it pays makes it meaningful yet friends have reacted sort of weird to it almost like this is beneath me or inappropriate for me.
I have had jobs that range from building radar systems for the Dept. of Defence to produce harvester and all sorts of kinky stuff in between. Yet most people would apply the label “meaningful” to the first job I listed rather than the last. Is it because I made big bucks building stuff or is it because the company I worked for infers prestige?
All I can say is I brought the same work ethic to building radars as I did to the job I had cleaning up guest rooms after a raunchy bachelor party. Both were jobs, both paid and both were in my opinion “meaningful employment”. The fact that I have any sort of job is meaningful but I think it’s made more meaningful by the fact that I’m not sitting in my ivory tower turning my nose up at honest work.
My new part time job is delivering newspaper flyers to 156 houses at a pay rate of .15 cents per house. Yup, .15 cents per house, 156 houses, sad you say, no not really, work is work and “meaningful” can only be defined by the person doing the work and I intend to spend the 2 hours it will take walking with Him. It can’t get more “meaningful” than that.
“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies with in us.”–Ralph Waldo Emerson–
