my grandparents, sharecroppers
worked in fields from sunrise to sundown
my father gained rough hands
fixing car transmissions during the day
while my mother cleaned offices at nightfall
I work in an office sitting before
computer screens for hours -
a move up still stressful
- Written for dVerse Quadrille #159 - Learn to Labor - or is it Labor to Learn?
Each job has its own share of stresses, I agree. Sometimes I think the back-breaking labor is easier than staring at a computer screen for hours. The hard labor pulls your body into the experience, where the other lets the body fall into inertia.
ReplyDeleteYou are exactly right! Work creates its own kind of stress no matter what kind. Well done.
ReplyDeleteIndeed. I miss the outdoors when I'm in the classroom. I try to tell myself I'll get out more, but it's the way of things these days.
ReplyDeleteToday’s world has some insanely stressful jobs, and iften they include no physical activity to relieve thd stress — that is a potentially fatal situation.
ReplyDeleteThis truck driver / secretary's son enjoyed your work. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteThis has much the flavor of my piece, so of course, I think it is brilliant. I always preferred office work to manual labor; using my brain not my back; time flies by as well.
ReplyDeleteI like the use of comparison to convey the message that every job has its form of stress. Young people today know little of physical labour such as share-cropping, although some may work as motor mechanics or even cleaning offices (a job I had a lifetime ago); however, stress doesn’t come from the job itself but from the people we work for and with. I have no stress in my retirement job of poet.
ReplyDeleteI like the juxtapositioning here.....a move-up may protect the hands from callouses and the back from aching....but it is still work. I know many a person who has permanently affected their neck from long days before a computer.
ReplyDeleteThank you everyone 🙂
ReplyDeleteEvery job comes with its own stresses. Nicely done.
ReplyDeleteMaybe working in an office is only a move up in terms of salary... often we are still slaves to the conditions.
ReplyDeleteI did office work for years. It was quite stressful.
ReplyDelete