I've been fortunate to mostly work in jobs that I love...that is until bureaucratic knuckleheads took over and changed things. I was a firefighter/paramedic for 15 years, which is arguably the coolest job on the planet. I always tell people that at some point, every boy wants to grow up to be a fireman. But I've seen far too many of those boys become young adult men become disillusioned very quickly with the realities of the profession.
However, it goes without saying that it was honest and meaningful work, and I am privileged I had the opportunity to do it for as long as I did. Again, knuckleheads took over, and it doesn't quite have the same traditional feeling that it used to. From there, I moved on to become an ICU nurse, and just recently at the age of 44 became a nurse anesthetist. I'm now been in the medical field in some capacity for over 20 years, with blue-collar fireman work, to grunt ICU nurse work, to having a doctorate degree in nurse anesthesia. Yes, it's all meaningful work, no I'm not embarrassed by most of it (as a male, being a bedside nurse kinda sucked), but there are certainly days where I wish I would've listened to my dad when I was in high school, and woulda/shoulda paid more attention in woodshop class, learned a trade and became a journeyman. I romanticize the idea to his day. I love physical labor.
An honest day’s work for an honest amount of pay is something to be proud of, not ashamed. It takes all types of people to make the world go around. We often forget that the smartest person in the world is the one who can fix my A/C at 10 pm on a Saturday night in July!
When I worked a bullshit, email, make-work job at a prestigious research university, I was ashamed. People were impressed when I told them where I worked, but I knew in my heart that it was a pointless job and didn't do much good for anyone.
Now I work on a farm, and have never been prouder of my work.
I've made mention a small handful of times before; I'm just a heavy duty janitor at a casino in Minnesota. I'm not ashamed of it, per se, since the pay and benefits are solid, but I do tire of the semi-regular question of "Why would you work in such a dirty manual labor job?"
I have no post-secondary education, so my ceiling is somewhat lower than many creative folks. I'm often befuddled when accomplished folks in parallel fields subscribe to or follow my fiction works here. It's not embarrassing, quite, but it does sometimes feel limiting in its way, as though I fully expect to be dismissed as a genre fiction author because I'm just high school educated and a janitor.
Bravo, Morg, that was a great write-up. A PHYSICAL Worker should always be proud ! I've worked nothing but hands-on , many different "occupations| (WORK!). Except once I was assigned to run a major distribution center for my whole region. UGH!... I gave out pick-orders to guys that had been there many years longer than me, it was embarrassing, truthfully. But I appreciate your Work, here and "out there", thank you.
I was thinking about your note on this topic. Currently I work for a charity, one might call it an NGO. Our paychecks come, ultimately, from the government. There is much DEI, but at the same time we have to fulfil government - via multinational company- targets. So competence is still needed, though it's not rocket science (or brain surgery).
I'm about to give up this number for a delivery driver job. Seriously.
If I work my nuts off for this job, I still have too much month left at the end of the money. If I work my nuts off delivery driving, I can do breddy well planks you berry mujjj.
I'm all for just doing an honest job for proper money, so I can shoulder the responsibilities I have and give the ones I care for the financial security they need.
You're a good bloke. Doing the do so what needs to be done can be done.
We disagree on many metaphysical questions. That for its own place and time. You're right about this, and I'm with you on it.
May God strengthen your arm and keep you safe on the road.
Such folk tend to be ashamed in a performative, humble-bragging way, much as white men prattle on about the privilege they bemoan, yet never relinquish, as they tend to feel entitled to infect others' solitude with their self-serving nonsense.
I only recently started writing here on Substack and I do because I genuinely want to. I have a good job that pays well and for most of the year the day is pretty slow so I can get some reading done as well. Not a bad gig.
I love Substack. I want Substack to flourish but never under the radar of the Thought Police. But even if ill-fated in that way, Substackians could immediately pivot to full-time samizdat, the better to defeat the enemies of freedom of thought. Carry on, all!
Few here would disagree that at this time our world is to-the-bone "dysregulated." (Sounds better than nuts, like "dyspeptic," only more mysterious).
So to suggest that a quotidienne occupation can be a way to daily board the great mandala would more often than not invite the riposte, "Why? So I can have more crazy?"
Well, yes. Not because you need more crazy but because you do need to be on the wheel, particularly as it is the only one we have.
I love the framing of delivery as 'the last mile,' a true service that perfects all the other services that precede it.
I also love the idea of a delivery memoir but that is just a prompt that came to mind.
Every writer dreams of being able to write full time. It is enviable but it can be lonely. Big lonely. As hard as it is to carve up time so as to get time to write, it may be healthier to work while writing.
I wouldn't say "ashamed" exactly. but my low end remote work for a subcontractor to big search corp. that is increasingly about checking the accuracy of their LLMs is incredibly boring and unfulfilling. It's cool I guess that I can do it at home late at night in my underwear, but I would drop it in a heartbeat if I could for writing, making art and doing music, and not look back for even an instant. Also between my lack of motivation and the low pay I live way below the poverty line which sucks, as it means I prep less than I could if I had more money.
Good one - right on
Thanks, Adrian, glad you liked it. 👍🏻
I've been fortunate to mostly work in jobs that I love...that is until bureaucratic knuckleheads took over and changed things. I was a firefighter/paramedic for 15 years, which is arguably the coolest job on the planet. I always tell people that at some point, every boy wants to grow up to be a fireman. But I've seen far too many of those boys become young adult men become disillusioned very quickly with the realities of the profession.
However, it goes without saying that it was honest and meaningful work, and I am privileged I had the opportunity to do it for as long as I did. Again, knuckleheads took over, and it doesn't quite have the same traditional feeling that it used to. From there, I moved on to become an ICU nurse, and just recently at the age of 44 became a nurse anesthetist. I'm now been in the medical field in some capacity for over 20 years, with blue-collar fireman work, to grunt ICU nurse work, to having a doctorate degree in nurse anesthesia. Yes, it's all meaningful work, no I'm not embarrassed by most of it (as a male, being a bedside nurse kinda sucked), but there are certainly days where I wish I would've listened to my dad when I was in high school, and woulda/shoulda paid more attention in woodshop class, learned a trade and became a journeyman. I romanticize the idea to his day. I love physical labor.
An honest day’s work for an honest amount of pay is something to be proud of, not ashamed. It takes all types of people to make the world go around. We often forget that the smartest person in the world is the one who can fix my A/C at 10 pm on a Saturday night in July!
When I worked a bullshit, email, make-work job at a prestigious research university, I was ashamed. People were impressed when I told them where I worked, but I knew in my heart that it was a pointless job and didn't do much good for anyone.
Now I work on a farm, and have never been prouder of my work.
I've made mention a small handful of times before; I'm just a heavy duty janitor at a casino in Minnesota. I'm not ashamed of it, per se, since the pay and benefits are solid, but I do tire of the semi-regular question of "Why would you work in such a dirty manual labor job?"
I have no post-secondary education, so my ceiling is somewhat lower than many creative folks. I'm often befuddled when accomplished folks in parallel fields subscribe to or follow my fiction works here. It's not embarrassing, quite, but it does sometimes feel limiting in its way, as though I fully expect to be dismissed as a genre fiction author because I'm just high school educated and a janitor.
My last job was raising our children and homeschooling them . The benefits were to my soul, rather than to my bank account.
It was fun, rigorous, exciting, focused, challenging and so much more. Some days seemed so long. Others flew by.
Day by day. Ste by step . Year by year ..... we got to the finish line. No sprint here. It was a marathon!
Thank you for this! Where would we be without our delivery men and women? I salute you!
Bravo, Morg, that was a great write-up. A PHYSICAL Worker should always be proud ! I've worked nothing but hands-on , many different "occupations| (WORK!). Except once I was assigned to run a major distribution center for my whole region. UGH!... I gave out pick-orders to guys that had been there many years longer than me, it was embarrassing, truthfully. But I appreciate your Work, here and "out there", thank you.
I was thinking about your note on this topic. Currently I work for a charity, one might call it an NGO. Our paychecks come, ultimately, from the government. There is much DEI, but at the same time we have to fulfil government - via multinational company- targets. So competence is still needed, though it's not rocket science (or brain surgery).
I'm about to give up this number for a delivery driver job. Seriously.
If I work my nuts off for this job, I still have too much month left at the end of the money. If I work my nuts off delivery driving, I can do breddy well planks you berry mujjj.
I'm all for just doing an honest job for proper money, so I can shoulder the responsibilities I have and give the ones I care for the financial security they need.
You're a good bloke. Doing the do so what needs to be done can be done.
We disagree on many metaphysical questions. That for its own place and time. You're right about this, and I'm with you on it.
May God strengthen your arm and keep you safe on the road.
The shameful thing is that Marxist sociology professors get paid more than delivery drivers. Even they are shamed by this, to their credit.
Doing a low paying but low stress job in order to do art or science on the side is an old and honorable tradition.
Such folk tend to be ashamed in a performative, humble-bragging way, much as white men prattle on about the privilege they bemoan, yet never relinquish, as they tend to feel entitled to infect others' solitude with their self-serving nonsense.
I only recently started writing here on Substack and I do because I genuinely want to. I have a good job that pays well and for most of the year the day is pretty slow so I can get some reading done as well. Not a bad gig.
I love Substack. I want Substack to flourish but never under the radar of the Thought Police. But even if ill-fated in that way, Substackians could immediately pivot to full-time samizdat, the better to defeat the enemies of freedom of thought. Carry on, all!
Not at all…..I’m retired😉 BUT….. I worked many years at many careers/jobs and loved them all !
Few here would disagree that at this time our world is to-the-bone "dysregulated." (Sounds better than nuts, like "dyspeptic," only more mysterious).
So to suggest that a quotidienne occupation can be a way to daily board the great mandala would more often than not invite the riposte, "Why? So I can have more crazy?"
Well, yes. Not because you need more crazy but because you do need to be on the wheel, particularly as it is the only one we have.
I love the framing of delivery as 'the last mile,' a true service that perfects all the other services that precede it.
I also love the idea of a delivery memoir but that is just a prompt that came to mind.
Every writer dreams of being able to write full time. It is enviable but it can be lonely. Big lonely. As hard as it is to carve up time so as to get time to write, it may be healthier to work while writing.
No, just sick of it.
I wouldn't say "ashamed" exactly. but my low end remote work for a subcontractor to big search corp. that is increasingly about checking the accuracy of their LLMs is incredibly boring and unfulfilling. It's cool I guess that I can do it at home late at night in my underwear, but I would drop it in a heartbeat if I could for writing, making art and doing music, and not look back for even an instant. Also between my lack of motivation and the low pay I live way below the poverty line which sucks, as it means I prep less than I could if I had more money.