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| Hockney - still going strong into his eighties |
David Hockney said recently that the only two important things in life were love and food. But surely he left one out by not mentioning work. He paints or draws every day – not because he needs the money, or the fame, or even because the world is short of Hockney paintings. He does so because it his passion – and he is lucky that it is his profession as well.
Predictions of the future often paint a picture of a society in which most of the work is done by machines and people are free to enjoy almost boundless leisure. I have two problems with this vision: first, that people seem to be working harder than ever and second, that who wants to have loads of free time anyway? Time to get bored to death, maybe.
Although feminism was mostly about women having equal pay and status in the workplace, this is still more of a male tendency. Men gain a good deal of their identity from the work they do while women seem to be better at taking it easy. My partner is quite happy to look at her phone, ride her horse and sleep until she wakes up. I, on the other hand, have to get out of bed when (or before) the alarm rings and pretty soon get down to something ‘useful’.
Who am I kidding? The person who gets most use out of me being busy is myself. I edit a magazine, write a weekly blog about my (currently non-existent) work and write a monthly essay like this to get things off my chest. I am under no illusion that the world will cease to rotate if I do not do these things, but they make me feel better about myself.
The lockdown, which is starting to ease now, has given us a glimpse of what a leisured life would be like, if it ever comes about. A few people are snowed under with caring for the sick and get that Thursday evening clap – and a fairly lousy income – for their pains. The rest of us have time on our hands and need to find ways to fill it up meaningfully.
My own suspicion is that human ambition and greed, not to mention the fight against boredom, will see us working as hard as ever once we have the chance to do so again. Reading books, watching films and laughing at silly videos on the web are all very well, but will never be as satisfying as doing a good day’s work for an honest day’s pay.
Pay? That is the thing that measures whether what we do is useful or not. If someone is prepared to part with their hard-earned money to see the fruits of your labour, then that gives it a validation which a hobby does not have. That is one of the reasons I enjoy being tipped so much – it is an unnecessary payment which shows that the tipper has enjoyed themselves. Although, I do things for free – such as giving talks – and do not need the money, I still enjoy being paid for what I do.
Coronavirus has altered the usual cycle of life, which alternates times when I am busy with periods when I can reflect. It is the lucky man who never feels the need or urge to retire and ‘take it easy’. Filling the parts of the day when you used to work with activity is not as easy as it sounds. Aged film directors like Woody Allena dn Clint Eastwood still crank out a film a year because it is natural for them to go to work.
Another man who has not stopped working and is now as busy as ever is Anthony Fauci, the Director of the USA’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. He has held the post for over twenty five years and his next birthday will be his eightieth. Once hated by the gay community, he listened to them when AIDs started and is now looked on almost as a modern saint.
Fauci knows that his job is to give advice to people who have been voted into positions of power and that he can never presume to override them. In fact, most Americans trust him far more than their president to get this advice right so he is now taking flak from those who want to reopen the economy quickly, who blame him for his more cautious approach.
Fauci, presumably, has a fairly thick skin and can take the heat. The USA is enduring a high death rate and a crippled economy. He knows that he can do nothing about the economy so he concentrates on the death rate instead. As long as he does not try to overrule Donald Trump, he is more or less unassailable in his role as a smart boffin talking to the politicians.
Although I am nominally of retirement age, I am itching to get back to work. I have no interest in the three Gs of male retirement: Golf (never cared for the game), Gardening (occasionally and under protest) and Gym, which I never go to any more. You can only read so many books or watch movies you missed. Now I need something to prove my worth.
Edwin Lerner
My other blog is diaryofatouristguide.blogspot.com
