Finding Meaning in Labor

William Blake’s 1795 piece, “Glad Day or The Dance of Albion”, is a colorful etching that depicts a nude individual with spread arms posed in front of what seems to be a colorful sunrise. I’m not going to post a photo here for obvious reasons, but I remember fondly to this day going over that piece in the printmaking course I took in college. It was created during the enlightenment period, and though interpretations may vary, mine has been the same from the second I saw it: this is a man who has been liberated via taking control of his own labor. Now that he can own his work, he can approach labor with optimism. I haven’t resonated with a piece that well since I first laid eyes on it.

In Genesis, one of the first “curses” given to man after the fall is the curse of labor. “Cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life” (I’m allowed to take Bible verses out of context - I studied them for the first 18 years of my life). This verse always struck me as strange, I have never seen laboring in the earth as a curse. In fact, using your body and mind in tandem in work is one of the greatest pleasures one could imagine. We don’t have very long on this earth, and any chance to use these bodies to their full capacity is one we should take. The satisfaction from completing a task is a unique pleasure as well. I thoroughly enjoy my work.

To summarize with Kahlil Gibran: “Always you have been told that work is a curse and labour a misfortune. But I say to you that when you work you fulfil a part of earth’s furthest dream, assigned to you when the dream was born, And in keeping yourself with labour you are in truth loving life, And to love life through labour is to be intimate with life’s inmost secret.”

Various Updates

Let’s see, what have I been up to. Oh, I fixed my Lewisia phylogeny.

I fixed my PiHole RaspberryPi- now to make a NAS out of it >:)

Oh, Tales of Arise: Beyond the Dawn is very good. I’d definitely recommend it to anyone wanted to jump back into Arise.

Other than that, have just been working on grad school related stuff. No beer section this time - will probably have one when I get back from Tucson after winter break.