Hey, I actually started writing this, almost 1 month into the new job, after 8 months of unemployment. I thought I would have a lot to say about how much better I felt now that I was working, but even the interregnum-that period between accepting the position and actually starting-was a lot less ecstatic and joyous than it has been in the past.
Because after all, what is work, what is a new job? It's not some sort of reward, or the lottery win or a residual benefit of an investment; it is another battle in a war which I have fought in as a conscript for as long as I can remember. I've been working almost continuously for 40 years now.
I often wonder if I at 15, washing dishes at the B&D Deli on Beacon St. in Brookline, MA, loading and unloading the industrial strength dishwasher, a beautifully designed and rugged contraption the operation of which I still remember with respect (of all things) if I considered my life that far ahead - as if the sheer thought of a future beyond the next minute was really too terrifying or too laden with responsibility for me to give it any mental room in between the dish loads.
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