Hard work
... and why we need to work even harder now!
I always believed I was inherently lazy. I just like not having any plans, just moping around the house, and then just ending the day with a good solid TV show or a movie. I absolutely need these days and have in the past taken vacation to do just that: nothing. Or what I believe “nothing” is.
Only now am I understanding that this is more the introvert behavior that makes me enjoy my nothing-days so much. Because when I do my version of nothing I do a lot. I tend to clean, do laundry, sometimes mow the lawn, weed a little, write on substack, and yes, I will watch TV as well. Sometimes I paint, read a book, or go on a run. I love doing nothing. My version of nothing. It is my time to fill as I please. I love those days.
I thought everyone handled things this way. I did not actually understand that a lot of people mean nothing when they say nothing. They do not do dishes, clean, make the bed… well, they sometimes do not even climb out of bed in the morning. The only thing they do is… maybe scroll on the phone. Dishes would pile up, laundry remains in baskets if they even care to take it out of the dryer, and for sure they do not cook.
I just cannot relate.
Who wants a messy house? Who wants to marinade in filth? Why is that relaxing?
The more I look around and see my fellow Americans and Germans. I see… real nothing. People not wanting to put in effort for anything. True laziness.
Just yesterday, I watched the movie “Billy Elliot”. A movie that always makes me cry. But it just shows hard working people who sacrifice things, who learn to get by with barely anything. And the only thing they have? Their effort to make something better out of themselves and their kids.
I do believe that only people that truly grew up poor understand what real sacrifice actually is. What it means to accomplish and achieve something against all odds. When you have to stretch your budget to make ends meet. When you learn the short cuts of how to cook to feed a family of four. My mom taught me that. What it meant was that we had dishes that most people would not even really understand.
We made spaghetti sauce out of spam. I still enjoy it to this day.
Pea soup was made by soaking dried peas that you can buy in bulk.
We bought the early-hen eggs for 5 to 10 cents a piece from a local farmer. Those are the eggs that are from very young hens and they are very, very tiny. Most people would not buy those. We are so used to XL eggs. My mom always had to adjust the recipes when baking a cake basically using 50% more or 2x as many eggs as the recipe asked for to adjust for the small egg size. Recipe? Who am I kidding. She did not really use recipes. She knew basic recipes by heart and feel.
We ate eggs with spinach and potatoes.
Sometimes it was just pancakes for dinner.
Today, you hear people complain about the price of coffee or lunch as if the only option is to buy those from a restaurant or diner. What happened to making your own lunch and bringing it? Why is this all over sudden no longer a possibility for so many? Why is it my responsibility to make sure you can buy yourself a lunch from a restaurant? Or candy and pop from the supermarket en mass?
People no longer repair appliances or cars (ignore here the fact that modern appliances do not even allow for self-repair). People actually do not seem to care about possession and things anymore. Everything is bought as a disposable. No pride. You no longer buy things as forever. When my grandparents and parents bought furniture, every piece had a story, and it took them 20+ years before anything was replaced. Only if it was broken and could not be repaired or re-upholstered. And then it was treated like another major investment.
Did you know when you find an old chair and cut open the cushion or upholstery you often find three or four layers of different fabrics given you a story of fashion and time? Yes, housewives often redid their own furniture when an “upgrade” was needed. It was common.
Just today, when walking the dog, I saw a girl of about 12 or 13 years climb on top of the car that was standing in her driveway. Just 15 min before that I so her “brother” taking his scooter and smashing it into things on purpose. These kids are from the foster situation a few houses down and clearly have never learned to honor things and treat them carefully. If my father had seen me do something this stupid, I would have been grounded for life or worse. Damaging a family car would have never occurred to me.
Apparently things are not valued when you feel you deserve them. When you got them for free. When you did not have to work for them.
And, man, do people believe they deserve things. The government will pay for it, so they think, and then it is free. It is absolutely shocking how economically and politically illiterate people actually are. The connection between taxes and “and the government gives out for free” is not understood. So many people literally do not understand that taxes are just a redistribution of wealth.
Did you know that the early fire insurances in some European countries — only a few centuries ago — required a plaque on your house, so firefighters knew which house to save? Essentially you paid for your own protection; fully accountable and responsible was you, not the government, not society.
Sometimes I want to go back to this kind of responsibility and accountability for living together in society. Everyone has become so selfish and destructive. Some people enjoy a free ride not feeling any guilt taking government fundings by lying or exaggerating disability and unemployment claims. And the more we throw at these programs, the more people decide ‘working is no longer worth it’.
Our leftist politics of “caring and kindness” breeds and attracts the worst in people. The world we live in now is arguably in worse shape than what most of us Generation X kids experienced in the 1990s. This is at least true for Europeans and US Americans.
Without ambition and the desire to better themselves, people lose the purpose in life. And yes, for many that is the belief in god and the afterlife. For many others it is also the satisfaction they experience when they accomplish something hard. Building a new addition to the house, doing yard work, learning something new, running a marathon, getting a promotion… you name it. Everything you work hard for, you really appreciate receiving.
Anything given to you for free is just … another brick in the wall. Something you lose track of and that is without real value to you.
It might be strange, but I wish we all would get back some of the attitude that so many great up with: Work hard, play hard! Instead we are seeing a swamp of people of fake outrage with no real commitment to anything and no morals left. People that assume their value only be devaluing others. Sometimes to a point where they wish death and murder on those that they claim are beneath them.
That is the death of society of life as we used to know it.
So, my ask to everyone today is: find something to work hard for. Do it. Pick something. Something that you always wanted to do, but never found the time and courage to do.
Report back to me.
I need inspiration. And I want all of us to inspire each other. Maybe we can rebuild our society one accomplishment at a time.