Notes from the Spring Creek Arts Guild

In Defense of Work

I am a maker. I am constantly making, cooking, drawing, building, or growing something. This morning I was listening to an audiobook about the history of “women’s work,” and why, in the past, some things were sort of naturally classified as women’s work while others became men’s work. Much of this book deals with the making of textiles and making things from textiles. An awful lot of my making deals with textiles, as well. Just now the mail carrier brought a book of quilt patterns, and my friend said “more work!” Yes, it is work, but it is work I want to do. I muscle through my other work, or sometimes put it off, so I can get to the good work.

Then again, I may have a different view on work than many people. One thing the aforementioned book is reminding me of is that these days, work is largely optional for many people. Most of us can make choices to minimize the amount of work we have to do in a day’s time, whereas our ancient and even more recent ancestors had to work every waking hour to take care of basic survival needs. Things are so different now—how many times have you heard “sitting is the new smoking?” So many of us sit most of the day for school or work and all the sitting is negatively affecting our health. Clearly the human body is meant to move, meant to work. And our brains are meant to work, to be challenged, to grow and learn.

I know there are still people in this country that perform hard physical labor to make a living for themselves and their families. In my experience, those same people are usually very, very smart, too, particularly in the area of “common sense.” I often use the phrase, “work smarter not harder,” and I can guarantee anyone who has to do hard physical work is going to quickly figure out some smarter ways to do it.

Yes, I do normal work, too. I have a regular job and the normal responsibilities for my home and our ranch. Yes, I often make more work for myself than is strictly necessary by cooking from scratch, keeping chickens, keeping dogs, and raising some of our food in a garden. And then there is the work I do because I want to—making clothes, quilts, socks, and decorative things. I was raised by people who had grown up on farms during a time when working was necessary to survive and, and as I have mentioned previously, the “B” word (bored) was a very naughty word that I knew better than to utter. That lesson took because all these years later, I avoid boredom like the plague! I have enough work of one kind or another lined up to keep me busy and dodging boredom for the rest of my natural life! What a privilege to be able to work—to be physically and mentally able to work!