An Honest Day's Work

Recently, I was reminiscing with a friend about some of my past jobs. Like most conversations that revolve around recollection, the actuality of my former employment opportunities became clouded with nostalgia and I found myself romanticizing situations I hated in the moment. Its funny how the passage of time recalibrates the human narrative into how we want to remember something in spite of what really happened. Eventually, the conversation ended and my friend and I parted ways after trying to one-up each other as to who had the worst jobs.

Later I had some time to reflect on the conversation and I was appalled at some of my attitudes. I had basically devalued each job by trying my best to disassociate myself with what I had done. We had laughed and quipped as we discussed each previous place of employment and the tone took on an unintentional air of condescension. Without realizing (or intending) it, we were looking down on entire sectors of the public job force because we deemed these jobs as laughable or even embarrassing.

One of the most common complaints I hear involving the homeless, is that they should go 'get a job.' And while it is far from a final solution to ending homelessness, it is a fair logical deduction that earning a wage will greatly contribute toward finding housing. If the fastest way from Point A to Point B is a direct line, then legal employment must surely be at least a pitstop on this journey. But then why do so many of us scoff and turn our noses up toward certain jobs? We complain that the homeless need of find jobs but then we look down on some of those jobs.

When I was a kid, my grandfather once told me there was no such thing as dishonorable work. He meant that no matter what a person did for a living, if the job was legal, then the person working it was contributing to society. As an 11 year old, I didn't fully grasp this concept. As a 38 year old, I am embarrassed I still haven't fully embraced it.

We all have different stages of life that we navigate through. During these dispensations, we sometimes find ourselves doing things temporarily as we work toward a more (yet elusive) permanent solution. We mow lawns in junior high so we can have sending money. We work fast food in high school s we can have car insurance and date money. In college we perfume all manner of night jobs so we can synchronize our studies with our schedule. We waitress tables, we intern, we hustle, we plot and scheme, all while we hope to find a career we enjoy enough to stick with so we can pay the mortgage and provide vacations for our families. But how quickly we forget how we had to adapt and evolve over the years.

So, the next time you come across someone working in a job you have 'thankfully' moved on from years ago, please remember that they are likely providing a valuable service to the community. They are filling a need and contributing to the economy by paying taxes and spending their wages in the Valley. They are making the deliberate and conscious decision to invest in our home town and for this they deserve respect.

It is fine to be thankful for advancement and promotion and working hard to get where we want to arrive. What is not acceptable is denigrating others who are walking in the same path we once did.