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| SIGMUND FREUD |
Sigmund
Freud still is my guy when it comes to his notions of LOVE and WORK.
“Love and
work … work and love … What else is there really?” (Sigmund Freud)
“Love and
work are the cornerstones of our humanness.” (Freud, again)
LOVE is the
experience of interpersonal affection (I love my mother … yikes! See the Oedipal Complex), the experience of
personal pleasures (I love pepperoni pizza with a dash of orgasm … I mean
oregano; I love hooking up … I mean hockey!).
The concept
of love may simply be understood as a function to keep human beings
psychologically and physically together in efforts to battle common enemies,
while at the same time facilitating the continuation of the species. I say simply understood but … LOVE IS
COMPLICATED. LOVE IS AN ENIGMA.
Where there
is family there is favor. When there are friendships catching fire there are
sparks. Where there is eye candy there can be crush and crave. And where there is lust there is amour.
WORK, on the
other hand, is not so enigmatic. Work,
rather, is the employment of a mental or physical activity as a means to
earning an income. No matter the nature
of the work, no one has an easy job.
Whether it is a dishwasher or a dermatologist, an artist or aeronautical
engineer, a busker or a bartender, a job is a job is a job, and a job is never
easy. (I do concede, however, that some jobs are simpler than others, but keep
in mind that the words easy and simple are not synonyms.)
The nature
of work is quid pro quo. Everyone wants stuff and in order to get stuff
you need to buy it and in order to buy it you need money and in order to get
money you need to work. Granted, in this
part of the planet, if for whatever reason you can’t or won’t work, the system
will take care of you with a base minimum dollar and cents proviso. But if you desire more, the more epicurean you
want to become, you need to work.
I think lots
about work because I am getting to that age.
Oftentimes people ask me, “How long you planning to stick with it,
Neil?”
It just so
happens that I do not ever dream of having my own popcorn or hotdog stands. I do not ever dream of managing my own
company … for if I were managing my own company I wouldn’t dream at all …
because if I did … I wouldn’t sleep at night!
I am lucky. I love my jobs. I love being a high school counselor. I love being a part-time university
professor. I love being a private
practitioner of hypnotherapy. I love
being a busker.
Having quality
work keeps me engaged. I am still
motivated by my work. I still have control
of my work. At ninety years of age Picasso
still painted. And all things being
relative, until the day that he died, Einstein pursued his theories.
“Your
purpose in life is to find your purpose and give your whole heart and soul to
it.” (Gautama Buddha)
“We often
miss opportunity because it’s dressed in overalls and looks like work.” (Thomas
Edison)
Perhaps I am
delusional, but I believe that sixty-five will be the beginning of my middle
age.
Perhaps I am
delusional, but I believe that my work is as fulfilling as my leisure.
Perhaps I am
delusional, but I kind of agree with Freud’s belief that the goal of all life
is death.
To close
with a couple more quotations:
“Love is the
only sane and satisfactory answer to the problem of human existence.” (Erich Fromm)
“Choose a
job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” (Confucius)
Whatever you
think of love and work ...
allowing the cement to dry in either can lead only to despair.
And by the
way, my Freudian slips presented at the beginning of this blog entry are really
just verbal revelations, adumbrating my repressed shadow archetypes, my sexual
anxieties.
Here is a
classic example of such mentioned:
QUESTION:
How many
psychoanalysts does it take to screw in a light bulb?
ANSWER:
It takes two
… one to screw and the other to hold my penis … I mean my mother … I mean the
ladder!
My
CHAUCERIAN PARADE for this week:
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| CLIFFS OF MOHER |
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| AMSTERDAM |
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| REGINA, CANADA |
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