[achievingApathy]

When my grandfather died a few years back, I went to the funeral and one night sat at a table with all the men of my family as we went around lamenting about how we'll miss him and what he wanted out of life. I am the first in my family to go to college, went straight out of HS. Every other member of my family has been extremely blue collar. Miners and factory workers, for generations that's how it was. I wanted something different out of life, and they found happiness doing what they did. it was ultimately more of a means to an end for them. They wanted to provide for their family and the work let them do that.

When the conversation came to me, I didn't know what to say. Here were men who spent 14-16 hrs a day in some of the worst conditions, and that's when they weren't on strike-- there I was, the guy who gets to work from home and sits at a desk all day. Its hard to think of a place where you could feel more alone than at a table with family who share nothing in common with you but DNA.

I love what I do. Well what hasn't been whittled away in the name of efficiency or productivity, but I would consider giving it all up.