I came across a fabulous article earlier this week posted on Mother Earth News titled “How to Work: The Most Important Self-Reliance Skill Ever” and wanted to share it with you. The article itself is fantastic and outlines some worth ethics and skills that all homesteaders really ought to have, as well as some tips and tricks. But, it got me to thinking. Is learning how to work a skill? And if it is, what does that say about our society?
I feel like now, more than ever, hard work and good work ethics are something incredibly hard to come by. It constantly amazes me how many shortcuts my friends take on simple things like cooking and cleaning (and how seldom it is actually an improvement). I am always surprised by how pleased my employers are when I simply do what they ask and what they pay me for. It makes me wonder if all of these modern conveniences are really helping or hindering us.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I love my modern conveniences (I’d be out of work without the internet and a computer after all). But, there is just something so much more satisfying in doing things the old-fashioned way and in really getting your hands dirty. In making mistakes, figuring it out and sometimes making do. In other words: working.
But then again, maybe I’m just having a bout of pessimism. I mean, if no one worked, how would anything get done, right? We don’t have robot butlers to fix everything for us just yet, so surely working isn’t quite a lost art. What do you think? Is working a skill, and is it something that people even have anymore?
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