At the Democratic National Convention recently we heard several references to the postulate that if we work hard, we should be able to achieve the American Dream.
I was musing over the relation between work and money and suddenly saw it as a chart, divided into four boxes formed by the axes of Work and Money.
Work-Money Chart
Box 1: Hard work, lots of money. This, I suppose, is the American Dream.
Box 2: Hard work, not much money. This is probably the American Reality for most people.
Box 3: Take it easy, plenty of money.
Box 4: Take it easy, not much money.
I don’t know about you, but I think Box 3 has a certain allure.
I’m not thinking of the idle heir to the Great Livery Fortune who put a bullet through his head (I just made that up). I’m thinking of someone like myself. Someone who makes space for being creative, whether we call that work or play, and who also wants to smell the roses, keep a garden, play with a grandchild, meditate, read, take a nap.
By idle I don’t mean drinking beer and watching television.
I mean day-dreaming.
Sitting or strolling through a quiet place.
Letting the mind slow down.
Noticing our own breathing and feeling the life force inside the body.
Making peace with paradoxes.
Like, this chart. An annual salary of $50,000 can seem like riches to someone living on welfare, or it can be insufficient to cover the expenses of a large family in a big city.
In our neck of the woods in Eastern Washington, missionary Marcus Whitman met with some resistance in the 1800s when he wanted to recruit Native Americans to work at his mission in the Walla Walla Valley. The natives had been living a prosperous life with plenty of free time, and they balked at the Protestant work ethic. (I won’t go into that story, which ended badly.)
To wrap up, I think the magical underbelly of the Work/Leisure/Money system is our expectations. Perhaps if we recondition our expectations and desires, we might notice prosperity rising as stress, worry and work-hours decline.
That’s my dream.
