Introduction:
let me paint a picture
....you're starting your first 15 minute break after 3-4 hours of work. Maybe you're in retail, or in service/sales, maybe you're in education and non profits, regardless, that first break you get
either is filled with overwhelming thoughts about how your work day hasn't ended or it's stressing about tasks that you don't think you have the time or energy to accomplish.
It sucks.
So What Has Happened?
As our specific skill sets become more specialized we slowly move from doing manual labor tasks to more administrative. And regardless of where you are in your own corporate ladder the premise still remains
We spend the majority of our days, even our days off draining our energy trying to get busy work done. This has been a known fact for the last 6 years. especially with the rise of the anti work movement last year . Gen-Z has shined a very important light by collectively shifting the conversation away from capital first structure to employee/human first models. Dubbing this new way the #IDontDreamOfLabor Movement via social media.
So what does this all mean and imply for this cultural moment?
For myself, its looked like challenging patterns and thoughts structure I hold as commandment. It's all looked like having tougher conversations regarding the concept of "work ethic" and wondering if I have subjected my full identity to the process of generating capital.
The question I have to ask is when I sleep, do I dream about labor?
When was the last time I offered myself, in the truest sense of word, a non-critical loving ear?
Have i ever given myself the space to nurture my spirit the way a mother nurturs a newborn. True unconditional love?
The reality for me is that unlearning the principals of capitalism is difficult in practice. Unlearning self-obssesed survivalist thoughts is a hard path. It means rewriting my story to bring back in that value that has been replaced by a self imposed price tag. It means detattching from the assumptions that all people need be pleased by me at all times. The reality for me is it means realizing I'm not that important in the grand scheme of this planet; that my inability to secure some level of external recognition may actually never occur but I have the chance to create meaning, significance, and value through living true to the principles I hold dear.
So Where Does Community Fit In All This
As a self-proclaimed internet activist and amateur writer I feel confident in the proclamation that community is both a noun and verb. Community, simply, only happens in presence of others;
and the essence of that truth
there is no I without we and no we with me.
In order to live and practice a life I feel worthy of living I choose to do so, with my community members, hand in hand.
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