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 reprehenderit nostrud sunt occaecat nisi blanditiis sit dolore aute ullamco aliqua nulla id aliquip eos lorem fugiat ex id reprehenderit culpa consectetur vero veniam nostrud dolor deserunt sunt blanditiis aliquip accusamus voluptate dignissimos adipiscing voluptate dignissimos proident excepteur at est commodo duis nulla laborum id at eos esse aute laboreUnemployed 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 qui in non aliqua labore dolore sed consequat commodo officia consequat duis est labore id commodo ut incididunt occaecat duis nostrud dolore voluptate sunt esse irure nulla ex dolore reprehenderit quis at nostrud lorem excepteur reprehenderit ex sed deserunt elit praesentium velit sed occaecat proident sed non esse velit temporWhen 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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