So not much has been happening of late.

I’ve been in a fairly philosophical mood so consequently I’ve been thinking about words and how some of them probably need to be re-evaluated.  Or rather, concepts that need to be re-evaluated. Whatever.

One such concept that I think needs to be looked at is the idea of work. I used to think that I was lazy, accepted this, and defined myself little by little through that lens. When momma said, “Clean the bathroom,” I generally didn’t see the point: it would just get dirty again, right? And even when I saw the merits of cleaning the bathroom, I didn’t see the point in cleaning all of it… I mean, the toilet I can understand, but dusting out the bottom drawer? Why?

Then I found myself really enjoying certain things like… well, instruction. I troubleshoot computers for a living. I generally do not do a very good job. There’s a great many questions I get that I don’t know and even more I’ll never know. But the few things I do know I love teaching others. That way, when they run into the problem again, they can do it themselves. And, they won’t call me.

Dusting the bottom drawer seems redundant, shallow-accomplishment work–the sense of accomplishment given doing that was brief and marred by the fact that it would just keep on happening–while teaching someone that they can type in “ipconfig” to get their IP address is (although nerdy) exciting because you’re telling someone something that they did not know before, and that they’ll spread as they see fit.

This doesn’t, of course, make those sorts of jobs lesser jobs… I do much, much work that doesn’t seem to go anywhere, and it’s absolutely essential. Plus, there are extremely intelligent people that do repetitive work that love doing it. Just because I don’t prefer it doesn’t mean that farming is unimportant, for example. Besides, things like farming are, in some ways, much more exciting than any other job anywhere.

The point is, I think I’ve found that I want to teach when i grow up.  Or, better yet, I’d like to curate a museum or something akin to that. That’s a profession rooted in history–something I love–but grounded in education, which is something I’m not good at by any means but want to be good at.

So… I guess what I’m saying is, if you’re reading this and you work at the Smithsonian Institution, give me a call. I’ll show you how to get your IP address if you give me a job.

Maybe next post we’ll go over the next concept I’d like to redefine: church.

Controversy ensues.

Jamion