The word work is carefully chosen as the focus for my attention. Work is something that concerns all of us humans. An important part of life is work. But it is not always paid for. Sometimes we work for fun. Sometimes out of necessity. Sometimes to earn our living. Sometimes to help others.
Most work is still done in our homes. Raising children, fixing up our homes, cleaning, etc. We tend not to call this work, but it is. Humans work as a way of supporting themselves. Work is an integral part of being human.
The paradox of our times is that we have made work too serious and boxed it in to mean "paid work". We should lighten up and see work as part of life. But not as our life. As someone has said – work today is an highly over-rated activity. We could do a lot of good by letting go of some of our mental models around work.
What is work? A friend in physics says that work is transfering energy from one system to another. Another friend connects the root of the word to the words worth and worship.
Digging into the history and meaning of this very everday (and for granted taken) word is fascinating. Is it time to rediscover work? And to put work into a new societal context? I think so.
Check these resources if you'd like to explore a little more:
Wikipedia
YourDictionary
Etymonline
//jan
Hi. It’s Beeha, here, hailing from the U.S. Bumped into your blog on alphainventions and I have spent some time on it. Worthy stuff…everything I’ve read. Thank you.
Word on the Work piece.
Ciao for niao — Beeha, http://2cob.wordpress.com