Sisyphus is a character in Greek mythology who was condemned to roll a massive rock to the top of the moun tain. Every time he got the rock close to the top, it would slip away from him and roll back down to the bottom. Then he had to start all over again.
Sometimes work that is repetitive and meaningless is called Sisyphian. Does the work you do ever seem Sisyphian? The industrial revolution created jobs like that where people worked long hours doing simple, repetitive tasks, with no contact with the person who would use the finished product. Large scale agriculture where the farmer has no contact with the consumer can be like that. Many office jobs used to involve creating paperwork that moved from person to person and then to filing cabinets with no understanding of an ultimate purpose. Now we create data and move it around, with no idea of how it affects flesh and blood people.
Psychologists tell us that we are hard wired for relationships. Even if our work isolates us from the end user of the product it is conducive to good mental health if we develop relationships with our co-workers. Working together as a team, each one making a meaningful contribution, is good for us. It is even better if we can share some parts of our personal lives, sympathise with each other, encourage one another.
People talk about how wonderful it will be when they retire. They will leave behind the drudgery of their mind-numbing work and enjoy time with their family and friends. Often the reality is different. The retiree gets up in the morning with nothing to do, family and friends are often busy, he has no hobbies, life doesn’t seem to have much purpose anymore. Then dementia begins to creep in. Dementia may have many other causes, but a lack of structure, a lack of meaningful relationships, and a lack of work to do that has value for someone else, are close to the top of the list.
Meaningful work doesn’t always bring a paycheque; work done to serve someone else is its own reward. It can be gardening, volunteering, making hand crafted gifts, writing letters, compiling a family history, creative writing, there are things that anyone can do. A few years ago a man named Bill Sweeney, almost totally incapacitated by ALS, was able to use a computer with an eye tracking camera to write blog posts and communicate with people around the world to share the gospel. He believed there was a meaning to his life and that enabled him to live longer than anyone ever expected. If he could do that, none of us has an excuse for doing nothing.
So here I am, 84 years old, a part-time bookkeeper, and a part-time writer. My ambition is to become more of a full-time writer, therefore by the end of this year I will have only two small clients. Some of the writing that I do is unpaid, but very rewarding. I am hoping that enough people will like the book I am working on now, What was God doing?, to make it somewhat financially rewarding also.
