(Host) Main Street versus Wall Street, 99% versus 1%… The more
commentator Skip Sturman hears protestors and politicians drawing
distinctions between ‘us’ and ‘them’, the more he wonders if much of the
Great Divide in our body politic today is about something much more
fundamental than income disparity?
(Sturman) Is it just my
imagination or are we really debating, once again, the meaning of True
Work in our country? If so, this is not a new debate. From time
immemorial, Americans have been trying to determine whose work
contributes the most to our society. Think back, for example, to the
last election when Sarah Palin disparaged Barack Obama’s background as a
community organizer which, she insisted, suffered by comparison to her
own True Work as the mayor of a small town.
Of course, how you
weigh the relative worth of various professions depends a great deal
upon your particular station in life. If your view is from the ground
floor up, the world can appear quite different than gazing down from the
34th floor.
True Work is often framed as a contest between
those who get their hands dirty and those who work in the clouds,
literally and figuratively. All too often- in films and in print- the
former are glorified while the latter come up short.
Take the
recently released movie, Margin Call, for example. In one scene, an
ethically challenged financial tycoon tries to convince his morally
conflicted associate that their work beats digging ditches. The
associate, who has just been asked to "sell worthless assets at the
highest price to unsuspecting buyers", asserts that "at least in the
case of digging ditches, there are holes in the ground to show for the
effort".
A kinder, gentler, but not entirely dissimilar opinion
is voiced by the steelworker in Studs Terkel’s classic book, "Working".
The steelworker laments, "If a carpenter built a cabin for poets, I
think the least the poets owe the carpenter is…a little plaque" that
says, ‘Though we labor with our minds, this place we can relax in was
built by someone who can work with his hands. And his work is as noble
as ours."
Having spent the bulk of my career, counseling others
about their choice of occupations, I have been cautious about declaring
which occupations deserve to be elevated over others, but in truth, I
have always had my favorites starting with the people who grow our food,
teach our children, care for our elderly, treat our sick, fight our
fires, protect our homes, and so on.
Ultimately, however, I
think what really matters is how people perform their work. Whatever the
field, I have always admired individuals who take great pride in and
derive great pleasure from their work.
As usual, my favorite
sage, John W. Gardner, says it best this way: " The society which scorns
excellence in plumbing as a humble activity and tolerates shoddiness in
philosophy because it is an exalted activity will have neither good
plumbing nor good philosophy: neither its pipes nor its theories will
hold water."