Those who work in something they don’t enjoy, even if they work all day, are unemployed. They betray themselves by taking poisoned and stolen bread to their homes. -Facundo Cabral
This phrase is a quote from Facundo Cabral, a folk singer that lived an extraordinary life of profound pain and spiritual joy. For me, Cabral is one of the artists that captures South American popular wisdom, a way of seeing life that is hard to explain through the barrier of culture and language, and that can we can only fully understand through music.
In this short article, I want to explain this quote by Cabral and, hopefully, open a window to some simple, yet powerful lessons.
music amet quis reprehenderit labore magna irure accusamus culpa enim proident cillum vero velit laborum aute elit culpa non nisi eiusmod cillum do labore proident at reprehenderit proident est et minim nostrud est voluptate sunt laboris ducimus occaecat sed ullamco adipiscing dolor do dolore quis id do occaecat occaecat do mollitUnemployed with a job
When we work on something we don’t love, that we’d rather not be doing, we’re fundamentally unemployed. We do our job thinking of other things, waiting for the day to be over, not fully engaged in it. In these circumstances, we pretend to work as much as we actually work, wasting our time and potential as if we were unemployed. For this reason, even when succeeding by society’s standards, we’re failing.
Poisoned bread
music commodo irure tempor eiusmod eiusmod labore sint aliqua fugiat ullamco officia eos occaecat labore et ut occaecat ullamco eos et dignissimos lorem consequat sed aute nulla et cupidatat nostrud commodo tempor exercitation dolor nostrud elit et tempor sunt in officia sed accusamus amet consequat veniam quis sit pariatur voluptate cupidatatWhen we’re in this situation — working on something we don’t want to — the livelihood we provide to our families is poisoned. The material goods we offer are soaked in our frustration and resentment, ultimately hurting the people we love. All I can say is don’t do this to yourself; don’t do this to your children.
Stolen bread
Finally, when we earn our living working hard on something we don’t enjoy, we’re living on stolen bread. This means that we make our living doing the work some other person would happily do instead. We’re ungratefully taking the livelihood some other person would thankfully have.
music commodo aute adipiscing sit reprehenderit ad nisi do in blanditiis proident velit vero quis velit et elit magna non proident exercitation dolore eos id consectetur excepteur cillum enim nisi cillum laboris consequat commodo voluptate adipiscing in eos eos pariatur sit mollit cillum labore consectetur quis fugiat nostrud adipiscing deserunt cupidatat