There's something about listening to the sound of crashing waves that helps clear my head of the frenzy of the work week so on weekends I make an effort to take a walk along the beach. I snapped the above photo on one of my latest strolls. It's not the best photo in the world, but do you see that truck? I do most of my head-clearing along this one-stretch of man-made peninsula, and that's where I usually come across this truck and its brethren. Apparently this peninsula and all of its houses are slowly eroding away into the ocean (for those keeping score, that would make it Man - Zero; Nature - One Jillion). Because these houses are very, very expensive and occupied by people who matter, the City can't just let them fall into the ocean. So it sends these trucks out each weekend to take sand from non-eroded parts of the beach and haul that sand to the eroding peninsula. Back and forth, to and fro, week by week. Kind of like Sisyphus, except from the looks on their faces you can tell that the truck drivers enjoy what they do. I guess it's a bit naive to think otherwise. I mean, how many boys had big ol' Tonka trucks growing up? I know I did, and I imagine actually driving a big ol' truck is far superior to pretending to do so. Not to mention that the work done by each truck, and the resulting air of accomplishment, is tangible, which would seem to stand in stark contrast to life in the modern office.
This is not to bash office life or those who live it (myself included). Quite the contrary. Still, watching these trucks go back and forth did make me wonder about "success" and how we define it. The vast majority of my friends work in an office, and a vast majority of that vast majority spend their workday alternating between staring at a computer and sitting in meetings. Needless to say, there are a good number who are unfulfilled by this existence. But they are successful--at least by the definition known to them. So why the disconnect? Isn't success supposed to breed fulfillment? Is there another definition to success as yet unknown? I think it's this angst that's fueled the proliferation of magazine articles and books featuring office professionals who quit their jobs to become mechanics or chefs or pursue some other hands-on trade. And isn't it this same angst that drives the success of reality shows like Deadliest Catch and Axe Men? We live in a world where tasks like "fishing" or "chopping wood" are unique and foreign. And perhaps viewed with envy.
Not to say we can all be fishermen or lumber jacks. And of course the world still has a need for accountants and lawyers. But it would be nice if the right people ended up in the right jobs. And that they ended up there by finding their own definition of success rather than relying on a stale version handed to them earlier in life. Which I suppose makes "success" an existential question whose answer lies well beyond the confines of this space. Whatever it is, though, it's likely mutable and definitely personal. So, the CEO in the corner office? A success. The father walking his daughter down the aisle? A success. The driver of the big ol' truck? Definitely a success.
You?
--KM
"On and on and on and on. My cypher keeps moving like a rolling stone."
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