Hard Work & Hippies

further thougts. i noticed some very vague occupations on this site. i mean its okay but be honest. are some of you still living with mom and dad?

 

doesn't matter if you are still leaving with mom and dad, it's still communal.

We can do it. <<<<< the zen motto

 

been a long time since i lived with mum and dad .....i moved out to join the military in 1970 and have lived at my parents a few months since .........as far as jobs that i have held ..it's almost too numerous to count .i took work as i found it ..from driving trucks to logging to working for the post office to ..etc etc ..i always looked forward to the challenge of a different trade .........as of this moment i'm the town's church caretaker .i look after and repair most anything at the church .plus i look after the cemeteries and still dig the graves by hand here .i dug 23 for caskets last year and 6 for ashes .........right now i have 8 to dig for caskets and 1 for ashes ,,,,,,,,i'm used to it so i don't find it extremely hard even though i hit a lot of big rocks .......like i said before ..what is hard work for some people is not for others ........in the winter i fall back to 6 hours a week .......gives me time to do stuff at home but more importantly giives me time to reflect on life ......a perfect balance ........since i don't chase my tail for the almighty buck ,i live a very fullfilling and contented life .....i wish for you all the type of life that i live ..makes living a bit more worthwhile

 

i dont n haven't since bout 14 or so...

i was original trained as a nurses aid, went from there to nursing school and was on my way t o med school,,,, broke me back n tore my body up doin stupid kid shit ,,,, and hated the nursing field,,,, had a couple kids and went back to what i was raised in,,, farming,,,,, went to management on a large dairy farm was there 12 years.....moved on n round the country a bit n came to Ga n work construction and have the homestead here to work on ....

just curious,,, do you think that is partially what contributes to the slackassedness in society today is that kids are still being kids when they should be acting n living more like adults?

 

well I studied to be a pentecostal minister, but after a short jaunt as a youth pastor, decided I had other plans for my life,
I was a machinist, then ran a highrise window cleaning company
ran my fathers farm when he retired,
then I was an owner operator...truck driver....


damn man I wish I could live with my parents....ahhh free rent, food paid for...
oh wait that was someone elses life, I had to pay rent since I was 14, went to school, came home did the chores, then went to work washing dishes in town..then came home and did my homework
I had to pay my own education, my own clothes my own cars...xmas gifts was for kids my father told me, so at 14 that ended
shit I still give some of my pay cheuque to my father and I havnt seen him in about a year.

but now Im not working as hard as I did, just starting at 4 am after driving 40 km to work, then pulling a split shift ending at 7:15pm with the odd straight day...15 hrs straight yesterday, today Im back on the split shift, ..have to go back in an hour or so....
oh yeah but I do have sundays off

and soon.....BUS TIME!!!!!!!!!

, man seriously all folk are lazy, i went off before about hippies bieng lazy, but after a while I started thinking about it, hippies work very hard at doing what they WANT to do...which is most of the ime smoking herb and playing music....
or building buses, or travelling
or tilling fields...hats off to those old school farming hippies

if you think about it, there are a lot of folks in every social circle who you can mark as lazy or hard working, I dont think its really right to stereo type.....even though earlier I think I did as well.........

shit I have to go to work
PEACE!!!!

 

YES

well they should live like adults....I like acting like a kid
cept folk keep calling me childish.....

 

hey..I don't mind sitting by the campfire watching the cool designs in the embers till the wee hours of the morn with people drinking beer all night long....done it many a time right here at the 'Honor Farm' on the coast.
But there is a time to hit the crack of dawn at 5-6 am or so and get things done here at this place. I don't work out in public anymore. Just art nad taking care of this place. Lately it has been about every morning. And ya know what? I love it. If I didn't get up early I'd missed this sunrise below.......


Sunrise on thanksgiving morn, 2005 in Oysterville, WA on the front of my property.

 

You have an excellent point. However, the places that our ancestors gathered food, are increasing displaced by the places where we screw and nap. Oh man, I'd better leave now or I'll be late for work...uh... I mean gathering...LOL

 

When I worked on towboats, we worked thirty days on and fifteen off (with pay). While on the boat, we worked six hours on and six hours off, round the clock. Slackers were not an issue. I would not dream, for example, of showing up late for my watch or leaving anything undone because that same guy would be relieving me six hours later. I wanted him there on time. It was hard work, no doubt, but it was what we signed on to do. It wasn’t the most creative work in the world, but it’s what paid our bills and, in my case, funded the two-week party I had at the end of every thirty days on the boat. I liked the work ethic. I liked being reliable. I liked being known as a good hand. I liked being with guys who would not even entertain the notion of letting the crew down.

At the same time, I’m the first to agree that hard work, simply for the sake of working hard, will just make you tired. The work has to have a purpose, a meaningful purpose that benefits all concerned. This little Campfire Tale sums it up nicely: http://www.wizardboys.com/Trabasco.htm

In our family, we all have a dedication to the whole, a devotion to each other. Alma Joy likes mowing the yard, so she does that. Betsy loves cooking, so nine nights out of ten she prepares dinner. I enjoy working on structural things, so I maintain the buildings. None of us like doing the dishes or doing laundry, but we use those things for meditation purposes and we do them as a gift to the others. It seems to matter why we’re doing the work and who we’re doing it for.

As far as what we do for a living (usually something at which we spend more waking hours than we spend with our families), we have each chosen something we love to do, something we would be doing even if we had all the money in the world. That blurs the line between work and play. If we can pay the bills, deal with the Daily Stupid, by doing something that’s fun, so much the better.

We have a friend who is working on a book. We believe in him and in his latest project. We pay all of his bills. His job is to write without distractions. We understand that just because he’s staring out the window or lying in the hammock, that doesn’t mean he’s doing nothing. He helps with just about everything, even though no one would complain if he didn’t. Love, work, sex, a shot of whiskey, a cigar, a bowl of beans, you name it: It’s got to be freely given if it’s going to be worth a damn.

None of us is the least bit interested in merely logging X number of hours at some meaningless, boring task. A sense of purpose seems to be key, and a group of people who have bought into that purpose.

 

looks like you hit the perfect balance ...........work just for work sake i find lame .if it's constructive by all means but just to say you worked 14 hours a day ,7 days a week just chasing your tail ,i'll say again ...LAME

 

I like your thoughts on letting people down. I have run into a lot of this in situations not on a river boat but on a peninsula just above the Columbia River.

peace
Honor