Thank you, I love this newsletter. I've loved all I get to do...I've never felt any difference between the days I've worked or days I didn't. I never understood why people should hate Mondays and look forward to Fridays. When I hear TGIF is is as if I'm hearing a foreign language.
I've had a couple bad jobs, for a time, which were a means to an end ... but even then, I was able to choose and manage my own mental state, my attitude, and my productivity & performance ... and to find the objective good each day.
Since I've mentioned Ayn Rand in the post, let me share this exchange between Dagny Taggart and Ellis Wyatt, from her novel Atlas Shrugged:
She smiled. "I know, this is a place where one employs nothing but aristocrats for the lousiest kinds of jobs."
"They're all aristocrats, that's true," said Wyatt, "because they know that there's no such thing as a lousy job—only lousy men who don't care to do it."
The roughneck was watching them from above, listening with curiosity. She glanced up at him, he looked like a truck driver, so she asked, "What were you outside? A professor of comparative philology, I suppose?"
"No, ma'am," he answered. "I was a truck driver." He added, "But that's not what I wanted to remain."
I've had some unpleasant bosses but work is always fun...even if it was washing dishes. And it was at least interesting to try to understand the motives of those bosses.
Recently I was thinking about my first job after art school. It was in a 50 person art studio. I was to fill in for the switchboard (1960) operator when she was out for lunch or using the washroom.
(She liked Rand's novels but only because they showed a woman could have sex before marriage & become a respectable married woman afterwards. That didn't seem to be anywhere else in the culture.)
There was an extra I got to do: at the end of each day I was given some money (maybe a $5 bill) & on the way in each morning I was to stop bakery, buying some fruit for the fruit bowl plus a pie or cake.
These were so people could have something with their afternoon coffee.
Within days I got to know the clerk-owner of the grocery & every clerk in the bakery.
The clerk would show me a melon that had gotten crushed...he'd normally cut away the crushed part & take the rest home for dessert with this family. But he'd sell it to me for a fraction of it's price. I'd always say yes to his offers.
A clerk at the bakery would show me a fruit pie that had 1 slice cut out for customer. Although it was 9am it was unlikely another customer would want a slice of that pie or ould want a pie with a slice missing. They'd sell it to me for a faction it's normal cost.
Soon I was showing up each morning with shopping bags of food. I'd lay out 20 or so platters & plates with slices of all sorts of exotic fruits, chunks of cheeses on toothpicks or unusual crackers, & an assortment of cookies & pastries.
After a while the office manager asked me to try to hold back a bit, some of the artists were making a full lunch from the spread I was offering & that wasn't its purpose.
It was just during this last week that I realized that many other girls had had my job over the years. But it's unlikely that any of them had done anything but buy fruit for the fruit bowl & a pie or cake.
I had as original a take on every element of every job I had.
Thank you for sharing this … it’s heartening and inspiring, and I’m sure that your value-orientation has served you … and everyone who’s had the good fortune to work with you … very well, in countless ways!
Thank you, I love this newsletter. I've loved all I get to do...I've never felt any difference between the days I've worked or days I didn't. I never understood why people should hate Mondays and look forward to Fridays. When I hear TGIF is is as if I'm hearing a foreign language.
Thank you, Iris ... this is the way!
I've had a couple bad jobs, for a time, which were a means to an end ... but even then, I was able to choose and manage my own mental state, my attitude, and my productivity & performance ... and to find the objective good each day.
Since I've mentioned Ayn Rand in the post, let me share this exchange between Dagny Taggart and Ellis Wyatt, from her novel Atlas Shrugged:
She smiled. "I know, this is a place where one employs nothing but aristocrats for the lousiest kinds of jobs."
"They're all aristocrats, that's true," said Wyatt, "because they know that there's no such thing as a lousy job—only lousy men who don't care to do it."
The roughneck was watching them from above, listening with curiosity. She glanced up at him, he looked like a truck driver, so she asked, "What were you outside? A professor of comparative philology, I suppose?"
"No, ma'am," he answered. "I was a truck driver." He added, "But that's not what I wanted to remain."
Dear Robert,
I've had some unpleasant bosses but work is always fun...even if it was washing dishes. And it was at least interesting to try to understand the motives of those bosses.
Recently I was thinking about my first job after art school. It was in a 50 person art studio. I was to fill in for the switchboard (1960) operator when she was out for lunch or using the washroom.
(She liked Rand's novels but only because they showed a woman could have sex before marriage & become a respectable married woman afterwards. That didn't seem to be anywhere else in the culture.)
There was an extra I got to do: at the end of each day I was given some money (maybe a $5 bill) & on the way in each morning I was to stop bakery, buying some fruit for the fruit bowl plus a pie or cake.
These were so people could have something with their afternoon coffee.
Within days I got to know the clerk-owner of the grocery & every clerk in the bakery.
The clerk would show me a melon that had gotten crushed...he'd normally cut away the crushed part & take the rest home for dessert with this family. But he'd sell it to me for a fraction of it's price. I'd always say yes to his offers.
A clerk at the bakery would show me a fruit pie that had 1 slice cut out for customer. Although it was 9am it was unlikely another customer would want a slice of that pie or ould want a pie with a slice missing. They'd sell it to me for a faction it's normal cost.
Soon I was showing up each morning with shopping bags of food. I'd lay out 20 or so platters & plates with slices of all sorts of exotic fruits, chunks of cheeses on toothpicks or unusual crackers, & an assortment of cookies & pastries.
After a while the office manager asked me to try to hold back a bit, some of the artists were making a full lunch from the spread I was offering & that wasn't its purpose.
It was just during this last week that I realized that many other girls had had my job over the years. But it's unlikely that any of them had done anything but buy fruit for the fruit bowl & a pie or cake.
I had as original a take on every element of every job I had.
Best wishes, Iris
Thank you for sharing this … it’s heartening and inspiring, and I’m sure that your value-orientation has served you … and everyone who’s had the good fortune to work with you … very well, in countless ways!