Honest Work and Other Ruminations

I was talking with someone the other day and the business of cutting your own firewood came up. They asked why I was willing to put in so much effort, especially at my age, into generating firewood. Was it economical? Well… it will be someday I answered weakly, after I amortize all the equipment like the chainsaws, the hydraulic splitter, IBC totes and a portion of the tractors. He correctly opined that it would be quite a while because all those things cost a lot. So, if it isn’t all that cost effective, meaning I could buy dozens and dozens of cut and split cords at retail before reaching the investment threshold, then what was the appeal? Well I told him, I like the process, it makes me feel good to do it… it connects me to the earth. He looked unimpressed. I continued… I like the physical nature of the work. I’ve done it for many years and although it is hard work, and yes I get more tired today than I did twenty years ago, it’s still satisfying and gives one a sense of accomplishment. It feels good to be self reliant and independent. He was still looking at me suspiciously. OK, here’s the bottom line… it’s honest work and I like that. That seemed to resonate with him and we moved on to other topics.

Filling IBC Totes with Next Year’s Firewood

After we parted I started to think about our conversation. Honest work? What does that actually mean? I realized that I wasn’t at all sure. I went to Google to see what they had to offer and there were references to “helpful, socially useful work” and “manual labor”. Well, maybe… but there is nothing helpful or socially useful about me splitting wood other than generating fuel for myself. That falls well short of altruism. Manual labor for sure, but I suspected that there was something more to this.

I thought about it long and hard. This is what I do, generate my own private debates and try to sort them out. It’s not a disagreeable process, quite the contrary, I thrive on it. The more I thought about what honest work meant, at least what it meant to me, I moved closer and closer to this. Honest work doesn’t require a beneficiary which is implicit in the “helpful, socially useful work” school of thought. I see honest work as that which lacks contrivance, has a certain purity of value and never ever is at the expense of others. And the expense of others includes no artificial creation of a “need” that then my work will somehow satisfy. Essentially what I’m saying is that creating a perceived need and then satisfying it, at a profit… is not honest work.

We are an advertising driven culture. We are often manipulated into believing that we need certain products or services to be successful. Television and now the internet are a veritable assault on the senses. We aren’t beautiful enough, smart enough, fit enough, well dressed enough, well medicated enough… to be all we can be. But in this overinflated, hyperbolic atmosphere there is a world of products to help us through. We are seduced into thinking that all these problems exist; and then to purchase products to mitigate the problems that weren’t there in the first place. That is not honest work.

Don’t get me wrong, advertising has its place and so do salespersons. Advertising lets me know what is available and knowledgeable salespeople help me with my purchases. All good. But when you try to convince me that my hair is too gray or too thin and that I must color it or buy a hair re-growth product or else lose my competitive edge… then in my world you have crossed a line. The ads for these beauty industry products are particularly offensive. The guy with the thick, non-gray head of hair gets to canoodle with the beautiful bikini clad woman in the pool. The woman who shells out big bucks for anti-wrinkle creams (which I seriously suspect don’t do a damn thing) gets all the attention from the boys. The sexist implications of many of these ads… are repugnant. Turn on the TV in the daytime and the ads are geared for women or at least what the advertising world thinks women are interested in. The ads are for laundry detergent, kitchen gadgets and feminine hygiene products. We won’t see those on Monday night football. No sir, nothing of that sort on football night. Football ads are for manly things like beer, automotive products and tools. The dishonest work marches on.

Stacked Logs Ready for Winter

And what about the fitness industry, are they kidding? Every ad for the latest and greatest home exercise machine is being demonstrated by a fitness model. The models are all gym rats with flawless physiques. These are people who spend twenty to thirty hours a week working out, but we’re led to believe that we can look like them in “just three twenty minute workouts a week”. Oh… please. I’ve been quite fit much of my adult life and none of it came as a result of twenty minutes three times a week. This too is not honest work.

So, this has devolved into something of a rant… yup! I can’t help it. Much of what’s on TV or the internet is insulting, demeaning and ultimately damaging to society. As I started writing this, a whistle blower former employee of Facebook is testifying before congress about how Facebook knowingly manipulated their followers with misinformation. Facebook is not being dishonest because they value dishonesty, but they are more than willing to look the other way because it sells more product. Good old fashioned greed. We have listened to testimony this week that getting people angry with falsehoods and promoting hate speech is good for business; they even have an algorithm for it. It keeps users on the platform longer and that makes Facebook more money. This is the worst kind of cynicism. And what’s up with Mark Zuckerberg? Is it possible that the 117 billion dollars he’s worth is not enough? America is deeply divided and our democracy is strained, but Facebook plunges ahead driven by the bottom line. And we are again hearing about how young girls are suffering low self-esteem about their appearance as a result of what’s in commercials and social media like Facebook and Instagram. None of this is honest work.

Adolescence is a tough time. I raised two girls, I have firsthand experience. Puberty, peer group pressure, sexual awakening and gender identity are hard issues to grapple with. To be bombarded with mean spirited and untruthful garbage from the advertising world and social media does not help… and it’s surely not honest work.

Social media has a lot of good about it as well. It can connect people, foster community and promote healthy discussion. But… unregulated as it is, it also has a hugely dark underbelly that influences far too many people. I can but hope that the testimony being given this week will foster change for the better.

Moving Boulders… We do this a lot in NH

But I digress. I wanted to talk about honest work and why it’s important. Honest work doesn’t have to be selfless “save a corner of the world” stuff. Make no mistake; doing well by others is noble and honest. Some of us choose service jobs to directly help others, but there are many non-service jobs that need to be done and greatly contribute to society at large. The thousands and thousands of people working in the manufacturing sector are doing good work. They easily pass the “red face test” of providing a service or goods… honestly. There really are the campfires of kinder, gentler people in the world. These good people make their way through life by simply being decent, kind and honest. Their success never involves exploitation of others. It involves doing a good job and charging a fair price for it. If they have employees, they treat them well. The Golden Rule is alive and well in this community. This is the community that I choose to be a part of.

But avarice is a powerful force and in many undisciplined folk, wins the day. Aggressive, greedy, driven people sometimes bowl over gentler folk. Corporations and super stores push out neighborhood businesses… and that’s so sad. The loss of expertise and product support on the local level is tragic. But again… we are bombarded with images of wealth and extravagance as if they were somehow a goal unto themselves. I’ve talked to young adults at the beginning of their journey and asked them “what do you want to be?” All too often the reply is “successful”. I was looking for an occupation as an answer, or perhaps some lofty ideal, not a self-indulgent fast track to a life of wealth and comfort as the goal. It seems like some of us have lost our way, our priorities twisted by society’s pliers. That is why my wife and I continue on this journey to ever more connect with the land and lead a more purposeful and mindful life.