Yesterday, I was driving my crew's buggy around at work and got the word to head out to the warehouse...I pulled up to the gate, where I was forced to sign in with my badge (a.k.a. cattle) number. As the man at the gate handed me the clipboard, I noticed something funny: I was not looking at a sign-in sheet, but hand written lyrics!
The last line read
"I want to be free"
Hmm...
I don't blame the guy. There's very little to love about being an industrial construction worker. Whatever PR bullshit the higher ups try to feed us ("YOU are the hands of the company!") everyone knows that we are only numbers. Hell, I get that speech from my general foreman every morning - affirming that they can replace him (and us) in a heartbeat, so follow the rules!
We're actually standing in the way of profit. We are expenses and liabilities; we are irritating necessities. Yet we are the ones who keep the damn lights on.
The work we do is grueling, dirty, and aggravating. Is it any wonder that the guy at the gate is trying to exercise his creative muscles, and the words he ends up with are "I want to be free"? The fact that he does it in secret may indicate shyness about his creativity, but it also may indicate an environment hostile to creativity.
It's so easy to go home, kick back, turn the TV on, and forget that you have good ideas in your head. They've mastered the dopamine in us, but only because we've let them. When I turned 29 (recently), awareness of my temporality began to bubble up from the depths, and now I am trying to get things done. However talented or capable you are, mind without action is no better than mindless action.
Do you want to stay at the warehouse gate forever? Or do you want to be free? Don't let your creative muscles atrophy. Exercise them. What are you doing with your time? How much of it do you waste? How much of it is spent crafting something truly valuable to your life?
As Jordan Peterson (one of my favorite public figures) says -
"If for ten years, you didn't avoid doing what you knew you needed to do...what would you be like?"
The act of placing responsibility for your own achievements upon yourself is something that's nearly been lost. It's true that I work in an environment that I can't stand, and we're all just numbers, and the guy who is three guys above me is an asshat. But they have spent years perfecting control mechanisms that break our spirit and control our deepest desires. All we have to do is step out of them. Bitterness about unfair circumstances is often a way of avoiding responsibility.
This is not an argument for complacency, though. Keep the fire alive. If you find yourself getting bitter, channel it into a solution; don't let it consume you. Don't complain, take action. After all, I'd sure rather be sitting by this river, contemplating my next move, than doing their dirty work.