We Are The Eighth Day (of Creation)
"The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it."
Genesis 2:15
The idea of work (craft) being a way by which "the affluence of heaven and earth shall stream into you", has become a fundamental tenet for me; particularly since becoming a father.
Growing up my mom always said "idle hands are the devil's workshop", which is true, but I overlooked the complementary truth- laboring hands are the tools of God, in the ongoing act of creation.
Our work is the eighth day, so to speak.
Because vice and addiction can be easy to recognize, they take an unfair amount of blame for the unhappiness that abounds in our society.
I think the more common source of unhappiness for us is simply lack of meaningful work.
I believe it is this lack of good work that led me down the dark paths I took in my teens and twenties.
This is also true of retired empty-nest parents. Children as a sole source of duty and purpose does not last forever.
There are many older parents who have turned hopeless and bitter because they have not found a new source of purpose for their later years.
And now I am seeing, in real-time, the loss of meaningful work destroy the happiness of older (retired) people I love.
I hesitate to even use the word "work", because it has become so twisted by economic discourse, and has an incredibly broad set of personal definitions.
We've become so lost that we struggle to even articulate what we're searching for.
A retired person recently confided that they were feeling so hopeless that they were considering taking a position at Walmart.
And I concede that this can be a valid and effective path for some people.
But it says so much about our condition as a society, that people equate jobs = work = craft, and are desperately reaching for meaning from big-box retail employment.
When I refer to "work" here, what I really mean is craft— true, meaningful, feel it in your bones, all encompassing, toil.
Craft is that which draws out all of your spirit and brings light to the world.
Retail employment is almost certainly devoid of Craft.
People often fail to realize that "the door by which the affluence of heaven streams" could be found in their own kitchen, workshop, community, canvas, or garden.
No matter what your work, let it be your own. No matter what your occupation, let what you are doing be organic, let it be in your bones. In this way it will open the door by which the affluence of heaven and earth shall stream into you.
-Emerson
The consistent practice of our craft does not come without great effort, even if it's a type of work we love.
There is no neutral ground in the universe: every square inch, every thought, and every split second is claimed by God or counterclaimed by Satan.
At every moment, especially in leisure, there are a litany of unworthy temptations desirous for our time and attention.
Developing a healthy relationship with free time does not come naturally; it requires a leisure ethic.
Only through deep, sustained habituation does one begin to distinguish between art and entertainment, lower and higher pleasures, titillation and the sublime.