The Book

Excerpt from: The Job Fetish, Chapter 3

Ignoring our higher needs and afraid to rock the boat, we have perpetuated the age-old but erroneous idea that the best job for a person is the one that pays the most. Almost a century later, we refuse to acknowledge that something in us called soul longs for so much more than the best-paying job. Soul wants the job that rewards us at a personal level, the job that taps into our hidden reservoirs of talent and the job that makes the morning seem brighter, the day shorter and the evening more gratifying. Soul seeks the job that calls us out by name and brings us closest to our highest callings. As many are realizing, this is what makes life worth living.

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What must we do to displace work that demeans the human spirit with work that dignifies it? How can we place personal relevance and purposeful living high on the list of priorities in the workplace? What wisdom eludes us? What course of action will ultimately set us free to enjoy optimal satisfaction in the work? Where can we find advocates for this agenda who understand that we want meaningful work that validates our existence even more than we want the money?

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Our goal is not to envision a world in which there is no work, but to dream of a world where good work is not acceptable at the sacrifice of truly great work. Mediocrity disenchants with an immediacy we know all too well, forcing our disdain for the work. What we really want is not to rid ourselves of the work, but to rid ourselves of the wrong work that inflicts its unnecessary pain upon the human spirit. The “better dream” beckons our higher angels to engage in human initiatives that bring out the best in all of us. This dream is our animating principle, challenging us to cross the chasm of our incomprehensible future with confidence.

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In retrospect we see clearly what overwhelmed us all: Plucked away into the industrial revolution, the farmer was severed from his soulful connection to the earth and a great divide occurred, separating him in some important way from his higher nature. 

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