Looks like someone's got a case of the Mondays...

I just love that line from "Office Space". Not, of course, that I have "a case of the Mondays", but that today IS Monday and ... whatever.

I've often thought that people spend entirely too much of their life working. And I really wonder why that is. That old phrase "running the rat race" comes to mind. It would make sense if mankind were working towards a single goal, or series of goals that had some sort of significance other than triviality. Say, if there were only a few sectors of work, each with a primary purpose. Feeding humanity would be one; clothing and housing would be one; building a communications network would be another; and perhaps some lofty goal (ie, terraforming mars) would be yet another. For the time being, I guess I must include the military as an essential sector as well, though in a perfect world...

Anyway, it occurred to me that so much of our effort is spent on things that will not last and do not really matter, in that the fruits of our labor do not contribute to the betterment of man. In fact, some industries are actually a detriment to society (eg. the oil industry in general, various industries unwillingness to adopt "green" technologies and practices, the tobacco industry, etc.).

It just struck me, as I look over the walls of my cubicle and peer into a sea of identical cubes in a vast room, in a building of many similar rooms, on a campus of identical buildings, within a city comprised of more of the same, that there are more people than not who are spinning their wheels and not going anywhere. Meetings upon endless meetings spent discussing the same topic with little to no progress evidence my observations. We've all experienced these, and they're not always bad. Sometimes the point of a meeting is something besides tangible progress towards project completion. Sometimes we need to meet in order to remember that there are others outside our own cubicle who also spend their lives in cubicles just like our own. However, more often than not, it seems as though we are just hamsters on the wheel.

In the end, we just try to convince the boss that we have done something somewhat productive in order to justify our paycheck, in order to pay our bills, in order to have the things we have, in order to live our life. And I just wonder why? Why do people believe that they need to work to earn to buy to have to live instead of just living? Its strange how complex we make our lives and get so wrapped up in the rules we make that we forget how to just be.

That said, I should get back to work. Need to convince that boss that I am a productive little rodent as well.