Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Prepping Children for the 9 to 5
New York Times: "MANY years ago, my son was sitting in his booster seat at the kitchen table, scribbling madly on a legal pad with a crayon. When I asked him what he wanted for breakfast he waved me off with a shake of his head. “I working Mommy or my editor will be mad with me,” he said."
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3 comments:
This is really interesting because I definitely feel like we encounter this problem every day, especially as college students, where we are conastantly engaging in conversations about what it will be like in the real world and how to find a place in it at the same time as we are being told to do what we are passionate about. In the arts, I feel like its even more important to find a balance between practicality and passion, because our hearts are already so deeply in the work we do. I think it will become very important for us to remember this balance when it comes to teaching our children, because we have this first hand experience of the negative effects of preaching "passion".
As I was reading this I also noticed that Much of the message also applies to me, that for year (and still) I have been told tat it is most important to do something that makes me happy, and that id I enjoy my work all the other problems about work will go away. Which I don't buy for a second, but is still a nice idea. This also reminds me of a question I get all the time from people who know that my dad is a doctor, and that is why don't I want to go into medicine? It certainly pays better than theatre. But I think that reason that I am pursuing a career in the arts, is because it is what I want to do and, what makes me happy. Not that this is a bad thing, but it is most clearly a product of our generation.
I think that the reason the our generation has this "photocopying is below me" attitude, or that we at least seem to is because a lot of our parents went the wrong way about teaching us to be fulfilled by their work.
She's talking about choosing a career that suits you, and that is important (if I didn't think so I would not be dumping 40 thousand a year into this institution) but some people just DON'T have the luxury of choosing what they want to do. Whether the obstacles are real or assumed some people get stuck pumping gas.
My point is that it should be about finding fulfillment in your life no matter what your doing, even if it is pumping gas or photocopying. Maybe you can't find meaning for your life at Kinko's, but it is still providing you with a lifestyle that you can mold and enjoy.
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