Meaningful Work

Even if it feels like we are all flying alone, we are all interconnected. No one is an island. Rendering by Dr. Norbert Lange
Shutterstock

This post originally appeared on the Hearts, Homes, and Hands blog on 2020-04-02 (with different art).

No man is an island entire of itself; every man

is a piece of the continent, a part of the main;

if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe

is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as

well as any manner of thy friends or of thine

own were; any man's death diminishes me,

because I am involved in mankind.

And therefore never send to know for whom

the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.

—John Donne

One of the things that adds meaning to our lives is doing work that we think is important in some way. Work that helps others, that saves lives, that somehow makes our communities better. That’s one reason I started Hearts, Homes, and Hands instead of just retiring to my ranch. I wanted to continue to make a difference in people’s lives.

But many of us are in jobs that we don’t think of as meaningful. They feel enclosing like we are drowning in drudgery. They give us a pay check but little else.

The Shelter in Place order and the COVID-19 outbreak gives us a chance to rethink how we feel about our jobs and find the meaning that was really hiding there all along.

When I worked as a fast-food cook in high school, I never thought it was an important community service. Compared to being a nurse or a lawyer or a cop, it was almost embarrassing. Sure, flipping burgers put a few bucks in my pocket, but it did nothing else to make me feel good about myself.

Truckers lead mostly solitary lives, but modern society would not function without them. Photo by MNBB Studio
Shutterstock

But look at that job today. The government has literally defined it as essential to the community. Fry cooks and servers turn out to be more important to the world than we—even those of us who have worked as such—ever thought. They feed hungry people. They help keep the cops on the street and the healthcare workers tending the sick.

There are other examples of invisible, under appreciated jobs that are essential to society. Without stockers, grocery store shelves would be barren. Without truck drivers risking their lives to drive through and even into hot spots, there would be nothing for those stockers to put on the shelves. Without warehousers, consolidators, and packagers, those drivers would not be able to deliver our necessities to the stores or directly to our houses. And without factory workers and farmers, there would be nothing to deliver.

But even those without “essential” jobs may be doing important, meaningful work. So, take a minute and look at what you do. I’ll bet in some way, it improves someone’s life somehow.

We have a moment now to think about our lives. Let’s figure out how we make the world a better place. And if it turns out we don’t, let’s figure out how we can.

We are all connected. If we can each improve the life of one person—make one person laugh, make one person smile, or just ease one person’s pain—we are all better for it.

Aging: Denial, Acceptance, and Heroism

Dad never did let that rockin’ chair get him. Here he is stretching fence at 90.

This post originally appeared on the Hearts, Homes, and Hands blog on 2019-11-27.

So buy him a drink and lend him an ear

He's nobody's fool and the only one here

Who remembers the smell of the black powder smoke

And the stand in the street at the turn of a joke

— Guy Clark

There is a perception that getting older means we are somehow less than we were when we were younger. The memories and stories of our elders get discounted as ramblings, the lessons they could teach lost to many younger listeners.

While we eventually reach the point where we need help, a long life is an accomplishment, something to be proud of. Perhaps that’s why people go to great lengths to deny their true age. For example, Suna’s father cared for an elder woman who claimed to be 104. When she died, it came out that she was really 108, but she felt it was important to she maintain the fiction of being younger than she was.

And my dentist is the same age I am, almost to the day. But I sometimes have trouble taking him seriously. His hair is the color of shoe polish, and he has obviously had “work done” on his face—probably a combination of face lifts and Botox®. According to MedicalNewsToday, “Botox is a neurotoxin … used to reduce fine lines and wrinkles by paralyzing the underlying muscles.” Why anyone would poison themselves in a failed attempt to look younger is a mystery to me. And it undermines his credibility as a health advisor. But he is an excellent oral surgeon, and I keep reminding myself of that fact.

When we get older, we get older. I’m eternally grateful to my parents for instilling this sense of realism in me. I am the youngest of six. My mom was 36 when I was born. So, by the time I was in high school, they were looking seriously at retirement. Our kitchen table was lined with forged trivets conveying such messages as, “Don’t regret growing old. It is a privilege denied to many.”

Admittedly, I thought this aging advice was embarrassing at seventeen. But I still remember it in my sixties. Maybe that’s why I feel accepting of my own aging. Thanks, Mom and Dad.

Even without denying our aging, we can still take steps to prolong our health and independence. My dad worked hard his whole life. He always advised me, “Don’t let that rockin’ chair get you.” The Spring before he died at 92, he planted 40+ acres of corn. His last hospitalization came at harvest, and he was more concerned about the harvest and yield than his own treatment. He knew he was dying and accepted it. So, he focused on what mattered to him.

This grandma fought off a home invader by herself! Not all of us have the ability or the confidence to do that. Photo by ABC News

This morning, I learned of an inspirational woman on the news. At 82, Willie Murphy beat a home invader badly enough to put him in the hospital. When the cops showed up, they took selfies with her. She said, “He picked the wrong house to break into.” Amen, sister! “I think he was happy when he went in the ambulance.”

Not all of us are body builders, but we can all do something. My neighbor across the road walked three miles a day—every day—well into her eighties. When she succumbed to cancer, she went down fighting, but she went down with grace.

All of us face challenges every day. These basically fall into two categories: those that are within our sphere of control and those that are not. All I can hope is that I continue to work on thing things I can change and accept those I can’t. I hope I’m never too proud to accept help when I need it.

If you find you need help with some of the things you used to be able to do, Hearts, Homes, and Hands is here to provide that help.

Dream About Missing the Old Office

Zombie image source: Fun Lover What doesn’t kill you
often makes you wish it had.

I am posting this much later than it is dated while going through some old journals. I list the souces as a dream about one of my least favorite parts of the corporate world. Apparently, it left lasting scars.

SELF
I’m going down to the crapateria to grab a bite.

OTHER
That won’t…

SELF
Kill me?

OTHER
No, but it will make you suffer.

SELF
That will have to do.

Overheard at Work

This does’t actually have anything to do with anything, but it’s cool. Source: Stan Winston School of Character Art

Male coworker: “Can we start having these meetings in the shower?”

Female coworker: “What?!”

Male coworker: “Well, that’s the only place I have time to be creative.”

Made me think of that series of ads where business people loved their new bathtubs so much, they never wanted to leave—even holding meeting in the bathroom while they luxuriated in lather.

Dinner with Friends and Family

Beer in a Scarf

It has been one interesting week. I started off by delivering a workshop on writing assessment questions. Two days were devoted to learning the new LMS we’re implementing at work. iTunes ate my library, including all the apps on my iPhone when I synced to the rebuilt library. That meant I couldn’t get to my work email on the phone for a couple of day.

While all that was going on, I still had to keep up with doing most of my assessment analysis. I don’t have a good client database built for this, so I use Microsoft Excel, which is a real pain. This morning, XL (I like to call Excel XL because its files are always extra large.) quit opening. It just crashes on load. Uninstalling and reinstalling Office didn’t help, and the problem exists only with XL. I spent most of the day trying unsuccessfully to troubleshot this issue.

You can see I was mighty happy to see the end of the week arrive. I invited two of my work buddies, who were visiting from California, to dinner at Mesa Rosa with the family. Suna and I had a really nice time chatting and exchanging stories.

RB and CR both ordered Negro Modelo, which came dressed in these little scarves. Unfortunately, I failed to notice the side of the beer they wanted me to take a picture of was facing away from me. The front of the scarf, which you can’t see in the photo, is tied in a cute little scarfy knot.

Unfortunately, RB had to catch a 06:30 flight home, so we couldn’t hang too long. But we did have enough time to put the work week fully behind me. I hope we can do more next time either of them visits Austin or I’m in California.

Life Is Hard But Good

OK. Suna blogged this one, too. But it’s such a nice picture. Photo by: Jon Montgomery

Well, I’m still not blogging with the consistency that I was earlier this year, but maybe that’s a good thing. Work is good, and it’s been taking most, if not all, of my writing energy lately. So I’ll keep this Grateful Monday short.

This week I’m grateful that our family economics are to the point where both Suna and I can start investing some of our energies outside the home. Tonight, Suna is leading a meeting at church. I cooked a nice sausage dinner—Suna and Beccano picked out the sausage yesterday—and had it ready when Suna got home.

Suna, the boys, and I sat down to dinner and conversation, something else to be grateful for. In spite of the dreadful manipulation of paranoid souls in which the Right continues to engage, I have some hope for the future. With Trackgrease, Tubaboy, and Beccano putting their energies into making the world a better place, how can we fail? Again.

I’m Back

I’m so glad to have this guy hang around for a little while longer.

I’ve been absent from the blogosphere for a while—neither writing nor doing much in the way of reading. I’m sorry. It’s been a couple of months where life just got in the way. So I thought it appropriate to resume this endeavor with Grateful Monday.

I have so much to be grateful for, and so much has happened since 22 May. I hope to back-post some of what has happened, not that I think anyone is all that interested. I just have a thing for completeness.

So here’s what I am grateful for:

• Dad is alive and well. He is going to keep farming for at least another year and has decided to buy a new tractor. All of that has been in question at one time or another since May.
• Suna’s position at the company with which she has been contracting seems secure. They may even bring her on as a real employee.
• My contract at the Fruit Company will end about a month earlier because I have accepted an offer to work there (albeit in another department) as a real employee. I’m looking forward to getting back into tech support training and working with some old friends.
• TrackGrease seems to have gotten married. I don’t think I was officially invited, but I am happy for him. And I’m proud of him. I don’t think I tell him that enough. I know I don’t call enough.
• TubaBoy has been getting ready to start his undergraduate education at Southwestern.
• Beccano is getting ready for his junior year of high school. He continues to play guitar really well. Getting better all the time.

That’s the short version.

Food for Thought #12: 100 Days

Barack Obama:
Not on His 100^th Day in Office

Photo source: Macrobuddies

Sorry I haven’t posted for awhile and fallen down on my weekly Food for Thought obligations. I’ve been on deadline at work. Something about writing for 10-12 hours a day greatly reduces the inclination to blog.

So in my absences, I missed commenting on the great press hoopla over Barack Obama’s 100^th day in office. Not being one to pay that much attention to time except when someone makes me, today’s FFT celebrates that occassion a little late. It derives from a question Jeff Zeleny of the New York Times now famously asked the President.

Appetizer: During the last 100 days, what most surprised you?

How well the church choir pulled of Franz Schubert’s Mass in G. Even the morning of the performance, we sounded flat (dynamics, not pitch). But when we sang for real, there was some kind of magic transformation. We sounded bigger and better than we actually are.

Soup: What most befuddled you?

I don’t know for sure, but I sure seem to have been fuddled. My brain seemed clouded most of the time, as if it were operating at 75% efficiency or something. Lack of sleep contributed, but I’m sure that wasn’t the whole problem.

Salad: What most uplifted you?

Seeing how happy TrackGrease and his beloved looked in pictures of their wedding.

Entré: What most troubled you?

The crisis mentality that sprung up around my project as the deadline neared. Really, the project made things easier. Was the crisis just so that we could solve it?

Dessert: What most enchanted you?

All the pictures of puppies that Suna keeps showing me.

Just Workin’

This week I am grateful to be working to much to do much blogging. Writing under an accelerated deadline saps my writing creativity this week.

Dealing with Ambiguity

I took tens of variants of this shot trying to figure out what the settings on my camera do. I’m posting it here as a bit of centering artistic relief.

I have a lot to be grateful for this week. Mostly, I’m grateful for a supportive family and the ability to support them in return.

My job at the Fruit Company is still up in the air. They haven’t told me that the contract is being renewed, but neither have they told me not to come back. I’m on a week-by-week basis, and I am grateful for every check I get after the first of the year, which was my original termination date.

Luckily, I have recently had a couple of calls from other recruiters. So, even if the Fruit Company’s finances don’t allow them to renew my contract for another quarter, I have other opportunities in the works.

Mothers and Hearts

The heart is one of the yang organs

Photo source: Wolf Wikis

On returning to work this morning, I had some astounding news. 

• My former boss missed the wedding because her mother had to have a heart “proceedure” again last week. She is doing better now, and former boss is back at work. 
• Then I found out my current boss was out yesterday and this morning because her mother was having heart problems and her father was too sick to take care of her. We had a nice talk about heart surgery in elderly parents—my mom lived five years after having a quadruple bypass at 75 but never regained her former strength—and I reminded her about the Austin Heart Hospital.

Please send positive energies to these two lovely women and their mothers. I’m sure that if you send positive energy, it will get to the right place and then come back to you reinforced.

Work Can Be a Pain—Literally

This is how my neck has been feeling by the end of the day.

Photo source: Juvenile Brain Trust

I think that both of my readers have noticed an increase in the number of typos in my recent posts and that they are running late. As you might have guessed from what I’ve been writing about, I have been busy as all getout lately. Not much time for blogging, and when I have been home to blog, I have been in pain and not felt like touching a keyboard. 

Luckily, my iPhone has enabled me to do a bit of catching up during lulls at other activities. Then it doesn’t take a whole lot to clean up the posts to a point where I feel comfortable publishing them when I eventually get to them. As I am writing this, there are three prior posts in the queue waiting to be cleaned up.

So the busy explains the delay, and the iPhone explains how I have been able to post at all. Now I’ll explain the pain.

I love my new job and my new cubicle. The desk is one of the most comfortable I have ever used. The problem I have is that the computer at my new cubicle is not designed for people who wear bifocals. It is sleek and sexy, but hardly ergonomic—no way to adjust the height of the integrated display, which is fixed at about six inches above the desk surface. It does tilt a bit, but that still leaves me tilting my head back to see the upper two-thirds of the display. And I have had to sit like that for hours on end—one of the pitfalls of writing for a living.

The constant pain has been making me very grumpy. Suna has thought that I have been upset with her, but I have not. I’ve just been hurting. When I woke up yesterday, I couldn’t move without whining until I stood in the hot shower for a half hour.

When I came in this morning, the guys from facilities had already lowered my desk the two inches suggested by an ergonomic survey. That’s a bit low for comfortable typing, but I can see the whole display by moving my head minimally. And I think that much motion is good for my neck.

I feel better after only one day. Maybe the old me will be back soon.

The Check’s in the Bank

Another photo from my trip home to see Dad.

Well, I don’t have a lot to talk about.

I finally got my first chef from the fruit company put in the bank. After all the trouble I had getting the check in the bank, it was such a relief to finally get it deposited. But then I couldn’t find the record of the deposit online. It eventually showed up. I just couldn’t find it because the pending amount didn’t show up in the balance on the summary screen as it normally does—probably because of the bank holiday.

So, I am grateful that I eventually found it.

Friday’s Famine

This picture captures my mood for much of the day.

This week was even busier than last week. There has been no shortage of things to keep me busy at work. The hard part has been convincing people that what I do takes time. PowerPoint presentations don’t become web pages instantaneously, as if by magic. Especially when they are made in an application that is like PowerPoint but doesn’t like being on the web.

But at least I like the people, and they seem to like me.

The big problem this week came when my check didn’t show up today. The guy handing them out didn’t have a clue, and admin didn’t get back from lunch when he thought she should. But when she did, she dove right in and started working dilligently to solve the problem. She kept at it until she found out it had been mailed because I’m on a new project code that nobody recognized as belonging to the Fruit Company. I owe her a box of thank you chocolates. I’ll get them as soon as I can get my check in the bank on Monday.

Saturday Update

I didn’t have any pictures of the game, so I added this playful picture later.

It has been a wild week. I have been so busy at the new contract that I haven’t had time to either blog or keep up with my blog lurking. That’s good. I like being busy, and I’ve been doing work I like doing—creating a web interface for a training department.

I have been so busy creating a web structure that I haven’t had much time to focus on instructional design. But I hope that will come later, once the structure is up and stable.

In other news, last night the Mavericks unexpectedly won a football game. It was close, and they had many opportunities to blow it. But they didn’t. It almost made up for the butt-kicking they took last week when they only scored a safety while the other team racked up almost fifty points.

On the ride home, the kids all sang some incomprehensible song at the top of their lungs. Suna told me they were singing their parts of the fight song. I didn’t recognize it as such.

Anyway, now I’m off to see my Dad.

A Sad Farewell…But Happy

I am blogging a lot these past couple of days because there has been almost nothing else to do at work. Today is the last day of my contract with ALE, and I leave at 15:00. All of my work is caught up, and nobody wants to assign anything to me with so little time remaining. It makes sense.

Still, this idleness leaves me with time to sulk. I have made a couple of friends here, and I have really enjoyed working with my whole team. I hope to keep in contact, but I know that isn’t one of my strong suites. So I am missing people already.

I am confident about my prospects in the job market. Something will turn up there, even though the recession has ALE laying off more people and other local employers hesitant to bring on new staff. Then there is the issue of subtle age discrimination. I never thought I would live long enough for my age to weigh against me. But I’m glad I did.

I have been walking the corridors of ALE saying good-bye to them and to some of the people who staff them. Who knows? I may be back here in 100 days or so. Silly co-employment strategy! I still haven’t figured out how this helps the company. All I can see is lost productivity. There are more effective and more efficient strategies available. But leave it to ALE to take the worst aspects of two good ideas and complain about less than stellar results.

---

11 July Update: I found this unposted this morning. I guess I had intended to add a picture or my thoughts at the end of the day, but I hadn’t gotten back to it. What I do remember about leaving was walking out of the building with a bounce in my step only to feel really sad as I started to pull out of the parking lot. I went through this mood swing a couple of times on my way home, where Suna and the kids bolstered me and made me forget about the stress of being unemployed for awhile.

Back in the Office Again

Well, today I was back in the office. It was good to be there again, but it’s funny: when I’m working from home, I want to be at the office. When I’m in the office, all I want to do is go home and work. As Gilda Radner used to say, “It’s always something.”

I had lunch today with my former boss who now works for the Beatles’ former record company. She is doing everything she can to help me get on there. I must say that I’m actually looking forward to something new.

Grateful Monday

So that brings me to today’s Grateful Monday. Today, I am very grateful to have good friends, old and new. I don’t always do a good job of keeping in touch, but I never forget.

More Than Human

Originally published in 1953, More Than Human was nominated for the 1954 Retro Hugo award in 2004.

Photo Source: Library Thing

You have the most appealing surface I have seen

Bring it over here

Lay it down by me

—Al Stewart

The other night I dreamed that I had a wireless network connection embedded in my brain. It left a big scar on my forehead, but that was necessary. The antenna was a thin, silver wire that followed the scar. Although the scar was jagged and over my right eye, it was not a lightning bolt, avoiding the whole Harry Potter image. And the little silver wire that formed the antenna was kinda cute.

Now I know that is not an original concept:

• Theodore Sturgeon won a nebula award for More Than Human, a classic story about coming-of-age when you’re part machine. I will always treasure the pure romanticism of “You stimulate my emosensors.”
• Manfred Clynes and Nathan Kline coined the term cyborg in 1960 to refer to a self-regulating hybrid of machines and humans.
• Then there is the Borg in the Star Trek universe.

Speculative fiction always seems to focus on the negative aspects of any technology. Perhaps it is just that we humans prefer to be scared of anything new or different. Embracing change is difficult, but we must try somehow. If you want to find your inner cyborg, see Cyborg.NameDecoder.com . Mine is shown to the right

Image Source: Cyborg.NameDecoder.com

References

• Clynes and Kline (1960). Cyborgs and Space. Astronautics.
• Sturgeon, Theodore (1953). More Than Human. Victor Gollancz.

Friday’s Feast

Appetizer: Name one thing that is unique about you.

With more than 4-billion humans on this planet, I don’t know that anything about me is truly unique. Maybe the combination of traits is unique, but I don’t really think so. I have seen pictures of my doppelganger, and he even had the same kind of bass guitar I do.

Soup: Fill in the blank: My favorite ______ is _______, but I like _______, too.

My favorite music is difficult to play, but I like simple songs, too.

Salad: What type of wood do you have for your home's furnishings?

As many varieties as possible. I even like mixing woods in the same room. I love wood it all its variations.

Main Course: Who do you talk to most often on the phone?

Suna

Dessert: What level of responsibility do you have at your job?

Depends on how you look at it. I am a contractor, so I have absolutely no responsibility. But I act as a consultant. People listen to me and follow my recommendations. With that power comes responsibility, as Spiderman might say.

Love is a Sweater

Everyone who sees my new sweater has to touch it. I don’t blame them. I love the way it feels.

Photo (and sweater) by Suna

Thanks to Saranda, I started an account on LibraryThing. LibraryThing lets you catalog and review the books in your collection, or simply those you have read. You have the option of keeping your reviews private, sharing them with various degrees of restriction on who can access them.

I have always been a cataloger, but I never built an index of my library for some reason. I like being able to access my obsession from anywhere I happen to be.

Grateful Monday

I missed Grateful Monday last week. So it’s a good thing that I have two things to be grateful for today. Now I can catch up on my gratefulness.

• On the home front:

Suna made me a wonderful sweater. It is so soft and warm and comfy. She finished the bulk of it on Thursday night. On Friday we bought five lovely buttons, only to find out that it had six button holes. So on Saturday, we bought five more of the blue-brown buttons that tie the sweater’s colors together so well. I wore it to work today, just to show it off. Thank you for the wonderful sweater, Suna.

• On the job front:

No really exciting news here, but the news Friday was good enough. When I took this contract, I was told that the funding would run out at the end of the fiscal year. That’s either this Friday or next. Now I had subsequently been told that they would probably extend the contract, but I haven’t heard anything definite about that yet.

So what’s the good news?, you’re probably thinking. Well, I had a brief conversation with my boss last Thursday. He told me that they really have enough funding to keep me working through the end of next month. We will have another conversation in mid February to let me know if he can justify (and, more importantly, get approval for) extending my contract for the duration of my eligibility. So it’s not a secure job, but it’s not the worst possibility, either.

I am grateful for any reprieve—no matter how fleeting.

Workin’ for a Livin’

Professional sculptor at Sandcastle Days, 2002

Workin’ for a livin’, livin’ and workin’

I’m taking what they giving ’cause I’m working for a livin’

—Huey Lewis[?]

Well I’m back in the swing of things at ALE. Projects with unreasonable deadlines and expectations, are the norm, and I was handed one this morning. I will get something done by the deadline, and they will deem it wonderful. That’s the magic of ALE. It also seems to be a tenet of project management everywhere.

Suna’s job hunt is progressing nicely. She had two interviews yesterday and three today. I don’t know how she manages to keep everything straight when both kids had all four wisdom teeth out yesterday to boot.

Needless to say, it has been a frantic time around ye old casa. Nobody slept much last night. I tend to get really grumpy when things interfere with my sleep—I have always needed my nightly eight—but I survived. I don’t think I broke anything.

Friday’s Feast

Appetizer When was the last time you received a surprise in the mail, and what was it?

I don't remember every having received a surprise in the mail. Usually, I only get things I have ordered. Maybe a Christmas card? That would be surprising because I don't send them out.

Soup If you could have a summer and/or winter home, where would you want it to be?

• Summer: Some place like North Carolina where the summers seem to be pretty mild.
• Winter: South Padre Island where it seldom freezes and you can swim all year

Salad Pick one: pineapple, orange, banana, apple, cherry.

Banana

Main Course Describe the nicest piece of clothing that you own.

The nicest piece of clothing I currently own is a camel hair sport jacked that Suna helped me pick out to wear to a funeral last year. The nicest piece of clothing I will soon own is a sweater that Suna is knitting for me.

Dessert If you could forget one whole day from your life, which day would you choose to wipe from your memory?

I forget.