Evidently, if you have a question about literature, you should just go ahead and ask me. I have so much fun researching, and I learn all sorts of things that I never knew before! This time I researched half for myself, since I wanted to read a particular essay of DLS’ again. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find the full text of “Why Work?” online- yet. I did find some quotes from it, though:
The habit of thinking about work as something one does to make money is so ingrained in us that we can scarcely imagine what a revolutionary change it would be to think about it instead in terms of work done. To do so would mean taking the attitude of mind we reserve for our unpaid work–our hobbies, our leisure interests, the things we make and do for pleasure–and making that the standard of all our judgments about things and people. We should ask of an enterprise, not “will it pay?” but “is it good?”; of a man, not “what does he make?” but “what is his work worth?”; of goods, not “can we induce people to buy them? but “are they useful things well made?”; of employment, not “how much a week?” but “will it exercise my faculties to the utmost?” And shareholders in–let us say–brewing companies, would astonish the directorate by arising at shareholders’ meetings and demanding to know, not merely where the profits go or what dividends are to be paid, not even merely whether workers’ wages are sufficient and the conditions of labor satisfactory, but loudly and with a proper sense of personal responsibility” “What goes into the beer?” (pp. 98-99).
I found that quote in the archives of this blog. Here’s the other quote the blogger posted.
I also found the text of Sayers’ essay on education, “The Lost Tools of Learning”, which is very good.
She wrote a bit of poetry (a bit of everything, really), but I hadn’t read any before today. A couple of her poems struck me right off: “Desdichado”, “Christus Dionysus”, and “Epiphany Hymn”. They can be read here, along with the rest of the verses she wrote in her book Catholic Tales and Christian Songs.
And now I’m off to continue my search…
It’s great to hear this, Kelly! Not only do I need help remembering how to look at work (of which I have plenty, right now); but I also just plain appreciate intelligent thought!
I haven’t really thought about anything leisurely in a while. You know, the pondering kind of thinking. It’s a bit of the stage of life I’m in right now (diapers, food, snot, dirty dishes, etc.); but it’s also the loss of a habit. :)
Anyway, who better than Kelly Rose and Dorothy Sayers to bring something wonderful to the table?
Yes! That nails it. Though there’s more, much more.
If work is all about creating things which are good and useful and make people’s lives better, then what is an economic transaction? A good economic transaction is when both the buyer and the seller get the better end of the deal. That is, each one of them gives someting which is worth less to them than what they receive in return. In consequence, everyone is richer, not just the seller.
And if that is the case, in a healthy, honest economy, where everyone is doing good work, everyone’s lives are constantly getting better. And if there isn’t anyone tinkering with the money supply, that means everyone’s lives are getting better but there isn’t any more money going around. Which means that the same amount of dollars are buying more and better goods and services. Which means that the cost of things is going down and that if one sticks a hundred dollars under one’s mattress, that hundred dollars will be worth more in a decade than it was when one put it there.
And if prices going down means everyone is better off, it means, most of all, that greed doesn’t work. Turns out it is much better for the economy if you worry more about doing your neighbor good than about getting the most bang for your buck.
Check out this article. It’s all about what a company ought to be: http://paulgraham.com/good.html
And read this one. It’s even more applicable: http://paulgraham.com/love.html
I seem to remember reading these articles before, but I can’t figure out when…
It was good to read them again, though. He makes some good points that people don’t usually think about.
I wish, I wish, I wish I could find that DLS article! I’m so disappointed that it’s not online.
Here’s an article I just read today that relates to this: Shop Class as Soulcraft.
Are you reading Wendell Berry? I love his thoughts on work, especially this: “Good human work honors God’s work. Good work uses no thing without respect, both for what it is in itself and for its origin. It uses neither tool nor material that it does not respect and that it does not love. It honors nature as a great mystery and power, as an indispensable teacher, and as the inescapable judge of all work of human hands. It does not dissociate life and work, or pleasure and work, or love and work, or usefulness and beauty. To work without pleasure or affection, to make a product that is not both useful and beautiful, is to dishonor God, nature, the thing that is made, and whomever it is made for. (From the essay “Christianity and the Survival of Creation,” by Wendell Berry, in The Art of the Commonplace)”
Also, Richard Weaver in Ideas Have Consequences addresses both work and economics. Back when I was blogging through Economics in One Lesson with some other ladies, I posted several quotes from Weaver, because I think he has a more Biblical understanding of economics than Hazlett.
Thanks for the links! I like reading all of this and seeing how it all fits together. That Matthew Crawford is smart, isn’t he?
Well… I find that it is not so much the thing of work that is at issue, but the Whom of work. I cannot always do ‘things’ (or produce things) that are both useful and beautiful because of my own or imposed limitations. I therefore try to focus on Whom I am doing the work for ultimately and endeavor to please Him. That means that what I produce is many times NOT at the ultimate of usefulness and beauty because of these limitations.
How do I know this ultimate is not reached? Because I see it, even if no one else does -especially in areas where I have experience. For example, when I do woodworking, I see the tiniest flaw -flaws that most folks are unaware of until I point them out, and sometimes even then they are not seen. Alas, I find that the ultimate goal of beauty is not attainable because I cannot do perfect work. I am only able to rest in the faith that I have done the best I could, at that moment, and that -by faith- am living a life that is pleasing to Him.
Well, sure! I think people tend to forget one or the other of these goals. They focus exclusively on perfection, which is impossible, or on a cheap product, which is terrible, or… on and on and on. In order to do proper work, you’ve got to have a full-orbed view of the thing. What will this work do for you? for others? Who is it for, ultimately? Is it good? beautiful? true? What does it say about you? about God? about the world?
Have I missed any questions?