_ From Thank You, No, one of the In a Cardboard Belt! essays by Joseph Epstein
Thursday, March 29, 2012
First Paragraph
There are some jobs I believe are distinctly not worth having. Urologist, proctologist, seismologist come immediately to mind. In a more general line, I would add any job that requires sucking up to the rich. (Oops: eight university presidents, five museum directors, and the business managers of three opera companies just left the room.) Or any job that puts you in charge of vast sums of money, which entails other people feeling the need to suck up to you. (When a man I know took a job as a foundation executive, a wise friend told him that he would probably never eat another bad lunch and no one would ever again tell him the truth.) Or any job that, because of the relentless social obligations, makes it impossible to find the time to read a book. Or any job that forces you to make life worse for other people. Or any job that causes you to lie to yourself a lot more than you now do. And finally, to close out this depressing list, there is one job instead of having which I'd rather be the last (and possibly also the first) Jewish coal miner in West Virginia, or a veterinary cosmetic surgeon in Malibu, or the man wielding the wide broom who follows the elephants in the great Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus parade - and that job is poet laureate of the United States.
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2 comments:
Inspiring paragraph. Makes one wonder why bother finishing the book.
As I was reading the thought hit me that up close and personal every job has its downside. I know that being in management there were many times that my impulses as a person of compassion were in conflict with my role as a manager. The old saying is "manage as though it were your own business." But I had to grit my teeth sometimes and tell myself to "manage as though this place belongs to someone else" because when all the fluff is blown away that's the reality that trumps all others.
Dusty old memory here---
In his autobiography "Harpo Speaks" Harpo Marx said the best job he ever had was can swinger for his grandfather. The old man had a business repairing umbrellas at a time when it was less expensive to have your umbrella repaired (same with shoes, remember) than to buy a new one. Like polishing shoes it was a portable business, typically operated on a sidewalk where there was plenty of traffic. The main "tool" was a very hot little furnace, a portable version of what a blacksmith might have. To make the fire hot enough to work the metal, Harpo's job was to put the burning charcoal into a can at the end of a wire and swing it through the air, getting the same results that a bellows would get for the blacksmith.
But that wasn't the best job he ever knew of. That was the designated job of someone who worked for some European nobility who was tone deaf and unable to know when his national anthem was being played so he would know to stand up. That job title was "King's Anthem Man."
John,
In Ryzard Kapuscinski's "The Emperor" is an interview with the man who did nothing but carry around the pillows for Haile Selassie's throne. The man explained how important it was to select just the right pillow.
Michael
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