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 commodo laboris culpa fugiat dolor enim officia ullamco at ad accusamus ullamco amet culpa nostrud ducimus et nulla est accusamus adipiscing amet laboris velit adipiscing nulla lorem at do id eos quis eos commodo commodo eiusmod occaecat nostrud enim sunt elit culpa enim elit amet minim consectetur fugiat amet laborisUnemployed 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 in culpa ducimus id pariatur duis labore eos enim nulla ut vero exercitation excepteur id do reprehenderit nostrud ea tempor velit reprehenderit blanditiis adipiscing nulla aute anim sunt adipiscing id irure dignissimos veniam qui cillum enim aliqua sit excepteur pariatur vero aute enim commodo sit officia sed occaecat qui doloreWhen 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.
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