What kind of work were we designed to do?
Then:
The stories in the Bible give many accounts of honest work, which always tends toward simplicity and a connection to nature. The typical job descriptions are these:
- Farmer
- Shepard
- Builder
- Stone Worker
- Inventor
- Pottery Worker/Sculptor
- Butcher
- Miller
- Fabric Maker
- Dyer
- Leather Worker
- Metal Worker
- Basket Weaver
- Scribe
Pros:
- Multiple Skills. These communities were usually small and these skills were needed in each, so many people became proficient in multiple skills, which extended the value they received from their own work and also led to less waste, since people are not usually inspired to craft something they don't truly need.
- Since processes and materials were simple they were easily and locally obtained.
Cons:
- The people needed to plan ahead to obtain things they wanted or needed.
- They were required to work the land six years and let it rest the seventh year, so they had to save and store extra goods for the rest year.
- Some occupations, such as shepherding required some degree of Nomadic living to follow green pastures and raise healthy and plentiful animals.
- They were responsible for birthing their animal's young.
- Due to the nature of one on one instruction, mastery took longer, although it was more complete.
Sustainability:
- The sheer magnitude of work involved in daily life guaranteed the land would not be compromised by over farming/grazing.
- The simple agrarian lifestyle was in tune with nature and had little impact on the land especially with rules designed to keep things that way.
Now:
We have work which is in contrast, very complex and materials and processes are far from their natural origins.America and Europe for example obtain products from China and these products must be shipped great distances to get to their destinations.
Pros:
- The shipping and distribution of these products creates jobs through middle men involved.
- A wide variety of products is available for consumption.
- Consumers need not wait very long to obtain things they want.
Cons:
Widespread importing creates a range of new and complex problems such as:
- The need for fuel to power the ships from origin to destination.
- The need for fuel to transport products from shipping centers to distribution centers, and again to retail establishments.
- The need to further distribute the received products throughout the store to stock the for the customer. Jobs are created but, no real skills are necessary to perform these tasks and no real reward is obtainable other than a small income to trade for products.
- The lack of need to develop skills needed to produce these imported products, should they become unavailable due to some unforeseen barrier to shipping and/or distribution.
- Availability of low cost, cheaply made items, stimulates and reinforces a lack of value for skilled craftsmanship in our communities and longevity of usability of products for which we trade income.
- Many of the products manufactured today are made from materials the use of which negatively affect the heath of those who participate in their manufacture and even that of the end user. (plastics, paints and coatings, chemicals, electromagnetic as well as radiation exposure.
Unless we learn to live within our means, and lighten our impact on the Earth, we will slowly kill ourselves, by trying to use defective processes like those listed under the cons. No manner of special legislation, or taxes can substitute for obtaining materials and goods locally, and having them crafted to last many years by local master craftsmen. To reduce loss of profits from shipping and distribution, products are cheaply designed and manufactured out of man made materials, which are disposed of in short order. Therefore even if we manage to sustain the availability of the imported cheap goods, the quality of life we would have from owning beautiful handcrafted goods is missed and most of us do not even realize it.
Personal observations:
On Goods:
I would rather save up $600 to buy a single piece of living room furniture made from local oak or walnut wood, than spend $600 on an entire living room suite of particle board furniture, cobbled together with screws and clips and fake cardboard backings. It means it will take longer to possess a complete living room suite , but I know I will enjoy its beauty for many years to come. In fact my children and their children will have the opportunity to enjoy it was well.
On Work:
Our bodies were designed to work the land and do other activities close to nature. We can try to convince ourselves that working in a factory or office will do, if we go to the Gym and workout, but working the day in the fresh air is much healthier than going into the gym and rushing through even a full blown workout in a climate controlled environment, where germs are festering in the carpets and everyone is sharing their sweat and DNA.
Hard work continually builds the body, while squeezing toxins from the body through the skin along with the sweat. Therefore the small amounts of pollution experienced locally, through natural processes, is easily handled by the efficient design of our bodies.
That is the point of this blog. We must learn about our design from the instruction book given us by our creator. He has stated guarantees in the instructions, which tell us He is faithful to bless us richly if we live according to His instructions, and therefore according to the design parameters coded into us at creation. We have six thousand years of history to examine that can easily show us what happens when we do it our way.
We just must either decide to live by God's design or man's, but God knows what is best for us and the most we can hope for doing things man's way is to be the blind leading the blind.
