Perhaps we all should leave home for a few days - or weeks, or months - so that we will be able to appreciate it more when we get back. I certainly appreciated my long sit-down bath while Padma was in the Bay doing her usual shopping and, no doubt, ran into quite a few people to talk to.
That's the thing when you've lived in a small place for half a lifetime: you seem to know half the town, and half the town seems to know you, and you can never just drop in to pick up a few groceries without also talking to half a dozen people and picking up the town's latest gossip.
Instead of gossip, I pick up books, such as the ones I brought back from Sydney: "Bullies and Saints - An Honest Look at the Good and Evil of Christian History", which I wished I had read seventy years ago to drive my long-suffering teacher of religion to distraction (who, surprisingly, gave me a totally undeserved "gut" in a sea of "sehr gut" - click here); "Phosphorescence - On Awe, Wonder and Things that Sustain You when the World Goes Dark", an achingly beautiful and inspiring exploration of the ways we can pursue awe, wonder and purpose in our lives; and Alain de Botton's inspiring book "The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work", which was bookmarked at page 19 with the card of a dental centre in Perth.
Quote from page 244: "For most of human history, the only instruments needed to induce employees to complete their duties energetically and adroitly was the whip. So long as workers had only to kneel down and retrieve stray ears of corn from the threshing-room floor or heave quarried stones up a slope, they could be struck hard and often, with impunity and benefit. But the rules of employment had to be rewritten with the emergence of tasks whose adequate performance required their protagonists to be to a significant degree content, rather than simply terrified or resigned. Once it became evident that someone who was expected to remove brain tumors, draw up binding legal documents or sell condominiums with convincing energy could not profitably be sullen or resentful, morose or angry, the mental well-being of employees commenced to be a supreme object of managerial concern."
I like to think that the previous owner of this book stopped reading it at page 19 only because he was interrupted by his (or her - you can't be too careful these days to include all genders; not ALL genders, mind you, as this blog wouldn't be long enough to list them ALL!) dental work because it's a beautifully written and insightful book into what these days is called the "work-life balance". What nonsense! What rubbish!
Sigmund Freud, the founder of modern psychology, put it much better: "Love and work ... work and love, that's all there is ... love and work are the cornerstones of our humanness." Freud may be out of favour these days but not with me as I've always equated work with fun. I already have a paperback copy of Alan de Botton's book and may give this beautiful hardcover to someone who has trouble getting out of bed in the morning because his "life-work balance" is leaning towards idleness. Come to think of it, I'd probably need a few more copies of this book.
