Continuing from “The Holiness of Everyday Life”, Joan B. MacDonald (a previous post. . . . ‘Work): Before discussing how work can be more spiritual, I think it would be helpful to look at the nature of work—what it is and what it isn’t.
The requirement to work was punishment given to Adam and Eve for their transgression in the Garden of Eden, and it was punishment. From ancient times to the present, millions of human beings have been forced either through slavery or harsh economic circumstances, to work at jobs that were brutal and cruel or mindless and boring. Consider these remarks from Working, by Studs Terkel: “This book being about work, is, by its very nature, about violence—to the spirit as well as to the body.”1 You may that sentiments such as those are found only “out there, in the world,” but in a discussion about women in the workplace by Victor L. Brown, Jr., we read this: Most working women, like most working men, will likely have marginal jobs with marginal pay and marginal satisfactions. Very few working people of either sex sit a large desks and enjoy high status, flexible hours and lavish salaries; .002 percent of the general population are attorneys, .04 are business managers, and .0011 percent are life and physical scientists. Women’s percentage of prestigious jobs is even less. Even if women could be granted fifty percent representation in higher prestige professions, the majority of women (and men) would still have grinding, boring, and marginal employment.”2
That is not just true of work for pay. It is true of housework and schoolwork as well. All types of work contain elements of personal insult and violence to the body and spirit, all contain elements of drudgery and boredom, and all are, at times, only marginally satisfying. However, that is not the whole truth about work, for all types of work can be deeply satisfying.
. . . Bruce R. McConkie wrote: “Work is the great principle which makes all things possible both in time and in eternity. . . . Work is the blessing that brings salvation, idleness a curse that brings damnation.”3
We’ve heard many a sermon along those lines. From the late eighteenth century to the end of the industrial revolution, writers like Samuel Johnson, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Benjamin Franklin have extolled the virtues of work.
Is work a sacred activity that both develops and reveals? Or is work grinding and boring, leaving body, mind, and soul heavy and numb?
I think we can safely say both. Work is often dull, repetitive, stressful, and marginally fulfilling. Moreover, work and how we respond to the demands of work does develop and reveal our souls. Some types of work are inherently more effective at developing and revealing souls: medicine, teaching, parenting, creative work, and particularly relevant or stimulating schoolwork, for example. However those types of work still contain elements of drudgery. Likewise, jobs that seem inherently dull or mundane, such as assembly line work or heavy manual labor, still have the capacity to develop the soul of the worker. How does work help to reveal our souls? Knowing that work can help us in that way, how can we enlarge the development and benefit from the revealing?
To answer those questions, I can only refer to my own experience. I have a masters degree in microbiology, have worked both full time and part time in various hospital laboratories, have been both a full-time and part-time housewife and a mother of six children, so I have some experience with every area I will be discussing. Moreover, I have looked for spiritual lessons and experienced at least some spiritual growth in every work situation in which I have engaged. Continued with ‘On the Job’. ~Joan B. MacDonald, The Holiness of Everyday Life, (Deseret Book, Salt Lake City) 5-6 (continued)
