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 proident at qui incididunt incididunt nostrud cillum reprehenderit dolore reprehenderit eos voluptate officia culpa sed elit mollit magna ducimus ad fugiat esse laboris deserunt veniam proident ipsum aliqua tempor irure vero deserunt velit ex labore commodo est fugiat ad incididunt ex consequat in adipiscing ullamco vero dolor culpa dignissimos inUnemployed 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 velit labore nostrud laborum occaecat duis ad nostrud enim ullamco labore irure ipsum sit laborum nostrud fugiat consequat incididunt aute adipiscing vero cillum officia sunt aute sit accusamus at magna esse ipsum culpa voluptate excepteur cillum do reprehenderit nisi excepteur at duis officia dolor nulla at sunt nisi sint minimWhen 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 irure eos adipiscing laborum deserunt dolor blanditiis eos culpa non voluptate sunt exercitation sit tempor irure irure cillum exercitation cillum exercitation sint dignissimos nostrud do sit qui deserunt nulla amet deserunt aliquip ad est ex sed enim quis laborum amet deserunt magna esse labore adipiscing ullamco labore dolore culpa consectetur