We need to support ourselves and our families. Still, working only for the sake of working is rarely worth it. Even in hard times, we think about what kind of work matters to our country, to our world, and to our souls. From building staff to administrative support to pounding nails to professional degrees, it’s not the job description that matters. It’s knowing we’re contributing to something important.
TruCorps won’t change popular culture or the economy. But we can match job and career seekers with organizations and employers with missions that matter.
Setting aside, assuming that’s possible, the innate need to provide for our families, what work really matters? Is a teacher really worth less than a Ferrari salesman? Is someone committed to public service really less valuable than a Madison Avenue ad executive? Does working in hospital matter more than playing professional baseball?
These kinds of comparisons are probably too easy. Though I like to see the occasional baseball game, appreciate and respond to a decent ad and guess it’d be cool to drive a sports car, none of it really matters does it? Especially as a relative matter. Teacher over outfielder? Nurse over rock star? Almost anyone over Wall Street greedsters? Sure. But how does it apply to you and me?
Surely, plenty of us have wasted or will probably waste big chunks of our lives – and others – by doing meaningless work. Beyond a necessary paycheck, contributing to no one or nothing. All the Zoloft and Prozac in the world might change the we feel about it, but it won’t change the reality: we have to “do” something – it won’t just come to us; we have to “work” for it – it’s not easy; and we should do something that “matters.”