It's the 4th quarter and the clock is counting down on the year of our lord two thousand twelve. Leaves continue to fall, temperatures continue to drop. Another season of our pastime concludes, the gridiron is packed, and roundball is back. The holidays approach, the New Year will be here before you know it.
2013 is coming.
The year is like an analog clock, each month represented by a number on its face. As our routines are organized by the yearly calendar, emotional momentum builds towards year’s end. Consideration of family and friends around Thanksgiving and Christmas, the end of one year and dawn of a new one, humanity steps to the forefront.
I've come down hard on the state of the average man's position since the beginning of these Chronicles. I've wanted more for him the same as myself. I've looked to mend broken methods and form new, more constructive ones. I've hoped to strengthen our resolve and belief in our unlimited human potential.
The great majority have found stride in their work and relationships, though to varying degrees of content. Like most of us, at times I grow frustrated with the routine that has us all caught up. As much as I'd love to rise above this rat race, we all must do what we have to. The trick, as we all know, is to focus on the highlights of the journey. The holidays make this easier for us, bring it into clearer focus. The agents of commerce do their best to put a price tag and material value on this period, but the older we get, the easier it is to compartmentalize this unfortunate attachment, and focus instead on the happy traditions and holiday elements of years gone by.
Not everyone is born into this world with the capacity to create or build, and that's fine. All of us should, however, posses the means to define our tastes. For example, the inability to design an automobile or skyscraper should not prevent you from admiring that craft as executed by others. Just because you cannot play the piano does not keep you from appreciating the symphony. The problem we face as a society is that too few who can create have the ability to get paid for it, and that those who appreciate others work seldom are able to make it part of their occupation. In short, we generally are not able to get paid for what we are most suited to do. More often than not, we work in fields that originally have nothing to do with our nature, only after molding our minds and routines do we claim a career. We are programmed from an early age that upon graduation, we are to "pick" a profession.
"What are you going to be when you grow up?"
Historically, society dictates that we are born to fall in line. We are given information and then tested on how well it's been ingrained, how much we remember. The US history taught, polished of many flaws and much of its controversy, provides a good framework for what once was and can be again. Though the truly lasting lessons learned in school are largely those associated with problem solving, how to work with numbers, order of operations, proper use of language, physical science and all the systems of our natural world. Yet all the while, our minds are geared towards choosing our own fate by way of occupation. While some instructors will look to your strengths and encourage you to follow your creative dreams, the overall theme is what can you do that will absolutely make money, what role you will play in the tested fields.
Only through absolute maturity, which many will never achieve, do we recognize the useless purpose to which much of our efforts serve. As tough as it may come to digest, when all jobs are broken down to their basic elements, more often than not an employee can be replaced by automation. The simple fact is that most work exists principally to continue what we know as "the economy". Even now I work in a position in which the majority would prefer to circumnavigate altogether with the assistance of the internet. And though many of my friends hold well paying positions, I would be hard-pressed to find one of them who feels a genuine sense of achievement at the end of each work day.
There is no easy solution for this situation, only a necessary gut-check on the theme. We will to continue to generate funds in which to survive and plan for the future while playing our perpetual roles in this global capitalist system. All I ask is we continue to more clearly define ourselves as unique individuals and attempt to sharpen focus on what truly drives us, what entertains us, and what inspires us. Recognize your strengths, what separates you from the crowd; acknowledge your independence and imagine making a living exploiting you best traits and tastes. Think of a world where each day we take another step towards achieving our potential, becoming who we were meant to be.
When I grow up, I'm going to be me.
The world is wide, and I will not waste my life in friction when it could be turned into momentum. FRANCES WILLARD
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