Notes on Work
Millenials get all the attention (for better or worse), but no one ever talks about Gen X. We’ve inherited a love of nostalgia from our Boomer parents and learned how to talk about generational trauma from our bankrolled therapists, but we haven’t quite progressed American society beyond bipartisan henpecking or violent abuses of (still) white male-dominated power structures. Perhaps we're a bit too economically and spiritually hands-tied. But when it comes to Gospel, we're the generations that claim Tupac and Nirvana and Aaliyah - their lives, as much as their lyrics, a testament to how frayed our cultural fabric truly is.
Our Generations, and those after us, have also been faced with the sobering reality that if we don't get a handle on CHANGE, REAL change for the BETTER, and QUICK, this Promised Land may not stick around for much further development. Caught in this friction between American idealism and its dystopian present manifest, we frequently find ourselves at odds with earlier generations, who dismiss our resistance as insubordinate or lazy, and also with each other. But who could really blame us for wanting liberty and justice for ALL, or the retirement and Social Security we're paying our life's wages into? Some of our ancestors built the American Dream upon it. Others did not, and the wise among us are trying (finally, belatedly) to wake up. There must be some common ground.
Covid presented a forced opportunity, not only to Americans, but to the World, to SLOW DOWN. Rather than fritter and waste and mindlessly work our passionate lives away, for the first time in the post-Computer Age, we had a cosmic moment to shut down and reconsider our priorities. The incessant grind and push to do do more and more was halted and a new kind of challenge emerged to face ourselves and each other. Forced out of the funhouse and into focus with ourselves, it's not surprising we didn't like many of the things we saw. To return to systems that have failed so many generations would be lunacy after being granted such freedom.
Yesterday I was gently reminded by my teacher to shift my hips in pigeon, allowing me to access a deeper stretch that I haven't felt after years practicing yoga. Sometimes that's all it takes. We practice with our sincerest intentions and honed skill, but we're still boxed into some corner until a gentle hand (or in Covid's case, an Earth-shattering shove) moves us into a completely different space. You still have to choose to stay on; to do the work.
For Our Generation, that looks like examining my shit - what I bring to the table - good, bad and ugly, and working to heal from the inside extending outwards to make this World a better place. It looks like working smarter, not necessarily harder - producing mindfully, with quality and intention and respect for those around me. It looks like being the Change we want and ALL so desperately need. It's not easy sitting in discomfort, but that's where meaningful work happens, where the nasty shit gets scrubbed clean, and better days roll out ahead. Difficult conversations must be had, solutions must be found, promises must be kept. THAT is the American way forward.
The Prophet says this in Kahlil Gibran's opus -
"And I say that life is indeed darkness save when there is urge,
And all urge is blind save when there is knowledge,
And all knowledge is vain save when there is work,
And all work is empty save when there is love;
And when you work with love you bind yourself to yourself, and to one another, and to God."
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