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Essay: Work and Spirit, by Thomas Erickson [Tom's Home Page] [Professional] [Life, Fun, &c] [Tell Me...] Work and Spirit Thomas Erickson1995 This essay was an email note written in response to a friend who asked me to reflect on the role of spirtuality in the workplace for a project he was working on. At the time I wrote this, I had been telecommuting to my job at Apple in California from my home in Minneapolis for two to three years. I've had the theme of work and spirit lurking about the edges of my thoughtsall day. But I'm not quite sure how to bring it into focus.Perhaps the place to start is here and now.It's about 5:30 in the evening. Right now I'm sitting on my screened-infront porch, watching and listening to a thunderstorm. Cool, moist air isblowing past me, and through the house. I just finished a snack, a bowlof blueberries and milk. I sit here and hear thunder and the wind in thetress and dogs barking and the whish of cars driving past (some are drivingtoo fast for a residential area!). And of course, I have my powerbook, whichis where I'm writing this note to you.There's nothing special about any of this, which is why it's a good placeto start. I believe that true spirtuality is manifested in the ordinary,everydayness of life. And, for me, spirituality has to do with the awarenessof the richness and interconnectedness of life. That's why, in a sense,my present position of working out of my home feels right.A neighbor just passed by, carrying an umbrella, and walking his dog.In many important ways my home is a much richer, connected place forme, than work (as, perhaps, it ought to be). Consider the contrast betweenmy work day at home, and my work day as it would have been a week ago atmy Apple office. Here, I'm sitting on the porch, listening to the rain;there, I would mostly be insulated inside a giant building -- I could actuallymiss a rainstorm. Here, I had a snack of blueberries and milk; there I probablywould have gotten a latte -- it's too much extra effort to keep perishablethings like blueberries and milk at work. Here, when cars go by, I see themin terms of myself and my neighborhood... some are going too fast; there,they're just a background phenonmenon that doesn't matter. Here when I printsomething, I might go out and check on my garden while the document prints;there, I'd probably do something else work related.There goes a kid on a skateboard. He obviously doesn't care about gettingwet. If I'd lived here longer, I'd probably recognize him.Working out of my home feels right. It has all sorts of indirect, positiveeffects. I eat better. I'm more aware of my environment. I care more aboutwhat happens outside. I'm much calmer. I have more time and space withinwhich to reflect. I presume this has positive effects on my work as well.My activities tend to be more interwoven here. This afternoon I walkedto a nearby cafe where I often go to write. I had a to figure out a paperfor a workshop. I go to the cafe often enough that the people there recognizeme. Anyway, I got in a couple of hourse of work, and then I noticed it hadgotten dark out -- a storm was coming, and so I decided to hoof it homebefore the rain came. I have a water resistant pack for my powerbook, butI don't like to push my luck. On the way home, I ran into Simon, a colleagueof my wife's, and we walked together a ways and chatted. His wife, an artist,had had an 'open studio' party while we were gone, and we chatted aboutthat and their plans to make their return trip to England via the Vikingroute: Newfoundland to Greenland to Iceland to the Shetland Islands. I fantisizedabout taking that route to a workshop I'll be going to in London in thefall (the one, for which, I was writing the paper). Simon and I chatteda bit more, and then parted ways, agreeing that we ought to get togetherpretty soon. Had rain not been on its way, I would have stopped off at thelocal market and picked something up for dinner.All this is ordinary, ordinary, ordinary. Yet it's a richer day thanI would typically have in California, even when I lived there. Here I'mrecognized at the local cafes, and the markets; there recognition is muchrarer, because I don't live and work in the same neighborhood. Here it isnot uncommon to bump into friends or acquaintences as I go about my dailyroutine; there -- except, of course, for coworkers - it's decidedly uncommon.Again, it has to do with living and working in the same geographic area,and not being tied solely to the rhythm of work.It's popular to talk about the boundaries between work and leisure gettingincreasingly fuzzy. But for me, until I began working at home, it felt morelike work was seeping into my leisure and home time, and that the non-workaspects of life were shrinking. Technology has made it easy for work-lifeto follow us home, but not as easy for home-life to follow us to work. Onlynow that I work at home, do I find that there is a better feeling of balancebetween the two.[Tom's Home Page] [Professional] [Life,Fun, &c] [Tell Me...] © Copyright 1995 by Thomas Erickson.All Rights Reserved. |
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