On Work

The heartbeat of the world is the work of the creator, who toils, no less than the animals and the trees, to keep it all alive. Man too works, no less than the lion, the corn, or the Divine. He who wishes to live without work is one of the first harbingers of wickedness.

-Cleric Heresh's Morals of Exile


It does take a lot of labor to get writing done. All things told, I'm sure I spent thousands of dollars at Starbucks to get the caffeine in my system to stimulate the old work ethic.

I'm still getting the feel for this blog. I mean to make this into a literary blog, not one for political rants, or religious discourse. Those can be topics for novels, of course, and my own does not shy from these ideas. But there are plenty of spots on the internet for people to argue unemployment statistics, or Adam's punishment from G-d. I certainly don't want to write about my personal work experiences.

I do have a fondness of the idea that G-d creating the world is an ongoing effort, not something that was done once and forgotten about. This can be picked up by using some of the divine verbs in the present tense. G-d gives life, not that he gave it and went away, but provides it, instant by instant, like the stream of electricity that keeps my computer operational. Shut off the flow, and boom! Battery power for about ten minutes.

As for idleness... well, talking about that will ranckle emotions. So I'll reveal it about myself. I cannot think of a more unhappy time in my adult life than being without a job. I cling to work like a man in a shipwreck grasping a buoyant stick of wood.

But I don't suppose it would due to define idleness as someone out of work. Unemployment can be terribly busy. Sending out resumes and filling those endless online appication forms can fill many a frustrating hour. A more appropriate definition would be not even trying to find work. It's a sensitive topic, and not one I wish to breach. Still, it's hard to rob a bank when you're working nine to five. By the time you get off work, you're too tired to stick up the tellers and cover the exits.