Chapter 81 work is rewarding

If your idea of ​​happiness is one of endless leisure, if you look forward to retiring in a rocking chair, then you're living in a fool's paradise.For indolence is man's worst enemy, and it produces nothing but sorrow, premature aging, and death. Mark H. Herlind and Dr. Stanley A. Frank profiled an 81-year-old woman in Kansas City in Health World who returned a rocking chair to her daughter, with a postscript : "I'm too busy to sit in a rocking chair." This mother has learned how to be mature and not grow old.She knows that work is the most useful thing for life and health.

If you think happiness is endless leisure, if you want to retire to a rocking chair, then you're in a fool's paradise.Know that laziness is the worst enemy of man, it only creates sorrow, premature aging and death. A moderate amount of work, as long as it is not overly intense work, does no harm, but too much ease does. Many physicians are disputing the theory that hard work is bad for your health.I know that Dr. W. Melville Annott, a professor of medicine at the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom, has come out and said that too much rest can cause harmful changes in the body. "But as far as we know: no job is harmful to healthy body tissue," he said. Rest and recovery, then such work, is harmless. Believe me, work is beneficial."

It can be seen that work is a factor that has an impact on delaying old age.Dr. O. Vogt of the German Institute of Brain Research proposed at an international senile seminar not long ago: strenuous exercise of brain cells can delay the aging process.Excessive work will not only not harm nerve cells, but can delay their transformation into old age.Dr Vogt has published the results of his microscopic studies of nerve cells in normal human brains, focusing on how they change with age.In the very active brains of two women who died at the age of 90 and 100 respectively, it was found that the aging of brain nerve cells was correspondingly delayed.

"And," said Dr. Vogt, "we found no evidence of accelerated neuronal aging due to overwork in our subjects." Yes, hard work doesn't kill you, but worry and high blood pressure do.Contrary to conventional wisdom, those business executives who slump to their deaths, suffer from various ulcers, rush around, and shoulder heavy responsibilities are not the result of overwork.Their daily work consumes little energy.However, the tense atmosphere and pressure, painful insomnia, fear of failure in competition, and endless anxiety that came with work formed a vicious circle, crazily devouring his vitality.In this way, he has no choice but to use alcohol, sleeping pills, amphetamines, and crazy sports on the golf course or handball field to escape, but the body and nervous system can only end this torture with death or mental breakdown.

The dire fact that more than half of all hospital beds in the United States are now occupied by psychiatric patients—much more than polio, cancer, heart disease, and all other diseases combined—suggests that there must be Where is the problem, and the reason for the problem is not whether the work is hard or not. The United States has the highest standard of living in the world.Advances in science have freed us from the hard work that our grandparents regarded as a necessary part of life, working conditions have improved even in low-skilled occupations, working hours have shrunk for wage earners, and machines have replaced Work done by human or animal power.We have more leisure time than we used to, so we cannot say that hard work is causing us to be in miserable situations.

Because work is necessary in life, it is not just a subsistence function for people.When people are inactive, the body will shrink and die, and so will the mind.Work, as the ancient beliefs say, is not a punishment for original sin—it is a reward, the means by which man conquers the earth, and the status symbol of rulership.Our civilization today is a testimony of human construction, creation, hard work - the most important manifestation of human labor, and even countries will perish without it. Vigorous peasants, merchants, thinkers and doers who created the great Roman Empire collapsed when it fell into the hands of corrupt, depraved freeloaders - commerce, agriculture, education and all forms of activity in an instant up.The Roman Empire was replaced by busy barbarians.

From its ruins a new civilization arose and gradually spread over the Western world, developed by a single group of small, humble, professing Christian groups.Christians are first and foremost workers—artisans, small traders, including slaves—people who really work on the ground. Let me say that it was no accident that a carpenter became the founder of Christianity, nor did he choose his first disciples among the workmen—some fishermen and a tax collector—by accident.Saul of Tarsus, the greatest evangelist in the history of Christianity, was an expert in making tents. To think of our work as a kind of endurance: to be forced to work to death for economic reasons is to deprive ourselves of the right to enjoy the greatest human satisfaction.The benefits of work itself, its beneficial and therapeutic properties, its relationship to character development—make work an essential element of our lives.

All work, once analyzed, is ultimately a service. We cook food, clean the floor, assemble parts, or correct a certain dance. Its ultimate purpose is to build a better, more convenient, and happier life. It can be seen that this Purpose is creative.This creative purpose should be clearly present in our minds if we are to enjoy or profit from our work. J. Arthur Ranke, a famous British filmmaker, said: "People often forget that they are in an industry. There is a basic question of 'why'. A chair factory is not just making chairs to make a profit from it-- And make chairs that people like to sit on. If the chair maker forgets this, he will wake up one day and find that his chair — and the profits it makes — are gone.”

Some people claim that the rapid development of modern industrial civilization has stifled the creativity of the work itself. It is nothing more than a mechanized movement. What is the pride of doing work that repeats an action without knowing the whole process?They say, when a person is busy on the assembly line in pain, where does the sense of accomplishment he can be proud of come from? In order to answer this question, I would like to talk about my personal experience.For a long time I worked as a statistical typist for a large company--there were many typists.My job is to type, to type endless financial statements on a typewriter with a special long pedestal, every hour, every day I type, non-stop.Accuracy comes first, then speed.I can't say I like it, because it is indeed a hard, monotonous, tedious job.

But in good conscience, I'm proud of the fact that I can do my best to be perfect.This, too, is so-called mechanical, but requires a high degree of skill, and I am satisfied with the high standard of my work, even though my work is but a small part of a larger project.It taught me the importance of doing everything with precision and excellence, so it was good for my growth and personality. And it also proves the truth of what G. K. Chesterton said: "The best way to get rid of the fate of being a secretary is to be a successful secretary." In other words, it is our inner attitude towards work that largely determines whether work is a frustrating toil for us or a pleasure that pleases our soul.

Some housewives regard such routine chores as the daily washing of dishes as the work of a nasty and menial servant.But one woman I know thinks it's a rare treat. She's Brooke Dahl, a professional writer who has written an autobiography and contributed to numerous books and magazines.Miss Dahl, who has spent most of her life in the dark, has regained some of her vision after a series of surgeries.She said that after being there, she washed the dishes every day in order to thank God for the miracle. “I can see a little piece of blue sky from my little kitchen window,” she said. “I can never get tired of seeing the colorful foam from the soap. After being blind for so many years, to be able to see so much beauty while doing chores, My heart is so grateful.” Unfortunately, many of us who are sighted are blind.We don't have the mature imagination that Miss Dahl has, and we don't know how to appreciate the value that work can bring us. No medicine works better than work.Mrs. Lida Jones in Texas said: It was work that pulled her back from the brink of a nervous breakdown. In 1941, the Joneses moved with their two children to a 30-acre ranch in New Mexico.It turned out to be a dreadful snake den, full of rattlesnakes, which must have gathered snakes from all over the state. "Although in our place, there is no water, electricity and gas, which brings inconvenience to life, but this does not worry me. What scares me the most is that I have to worry about someone in my family being bitten by a snake every moment. What to do. I dreamed that I ran from home to the town with my baby in my arms to ask for help. When my husband went to work in the fields, if I didn’t see him for a few minutes, I would fall into fear. "This constant onslaught of worry and fear compelled me to work endlessly or to have a nervous breakdown. Hard work is obviously necessary due to the hardships of our lives, and it is what has saved me. I am here The 30 acres of land were all planted with corn and millet seeds, and my hands were so tired that I got calluses; I made all the clothes for the children by myself; I made enough canned food to last 5 years... I worked every day until I was so tired that I only wanted to go to bed, Can't take care of anything - including no extra energy to think about snakes. "A year went by without anyone being bitten by a snake and we moved out. I never had the chance to work that hard again, but I'm always grateful for that year of hard work - it saved me, made me Escaped a crisis of nervous breakdown." We should be like Mrs. Jones, who knows how to use hard work to create strength and survive the crisis.Simply developing the habit of working can sometimes lift us out of a momentary depression, frustration, or disappointment.Hard work is often what sustains people in times of disaster, personal tragedy, or the loss of a loved one. Edmund Burke said, “Never despair. But when you feel hopeless, go to work.” Edmund Burke was not talking empty words—he lived it.He had lost his son, and after careful study he had come to be painfully convinced that civilization was on the verge of decay.Work was for him, as it was for so many others, the only sign of sobriety in a mad world.So he keeps working, even in his despair. Yes, work is a law of life.No matter what reason we leave our jobs, we suffer.Work therapy has been used in institutions such as psychiatric institutions, prisons, nursing homes, and any place where people must be kept in isolation. "Retired people die young" - sounds sadly true.The transition from a state of active, busy, rewarding activity into a world of wasted or aimlessly spent days destroys our vitality, reduces our endurance, and causes premature death.The people who remain happy in retirement are the ones who view retirement as simply a job change. The 65-year-old retirement system is a product of the past and has become a disgrace to all progressive countries.The retirement age standard of 65 was borrowed from the railway employee retirement system in 1870, and was first adopted in the social life security system in 1937.Since the 20th century, human life expectancy has increased by about 20 years on average, so 65 years old is not the time when a person should be in a rocking chair or sent to a funeral home these days.But we're still stuck with the system of retiring at 65, despite the fact that many people are in their prime at this point. Thomas Collins is an authority on retirement issues. He is the columnist of the Chicago Daily News and the author of the book "Golden Years". About 90 newspapers jointly publish his "Golden Years" column .Mr Collins described forcing a person to retire at 65 as "cruel".He said: "After seven years of interviewing people around the age of 65, I have found this: In the United States, even applying the system of forced retirement to horses or dogs is an intolerable cruelty. At least, when a horse is dying will be led to a place where there is grass to eat, and almost every dog ​​will die naturally. "However this cruelty is not just about the existential threat it poses...it is about doubting a person's ability to live to the age of 65 in such a way that it does irreparable damage to their psyche. "Because it's a very scary thing to think of a person who is considered too old to do anything. It's even more terrifying when we think about a person being deprived of a job, income, and self-esteem. Unless we completely Abolish the 65-year-old retirement system." Why hasn't the government ever consulted with the people who are urging the abolition of the retirement system -- a group of 65-year-old workers?The obvious fact is that almost everyone who is working does not want to be forced to retire at the age of 65!We found that many people want to continue working beyond the age of 65. Given the attitudes of the business community towards hiring older people, it is reassuring that many of them are going out and finding work for themselves.Julie Ada K. Arthur is an authority on social welfare. According to her survey: "The 1950 census report has one of the most noteworthy employment facts, that is, there are hundreds of thousands of people over the age of 75. Elderly people continue to work, many of them as freelancers without an employer." In 1954, the Capital Life Insurance Company published a report: 3/5 of men aged 65 to 69 were employed; 2/5 of men aged 70 to 74 were employed; 1/5 of men over 75 were still employed. 5 at work.Most of them are doing freelance work. Once again, these figures are a powerful testament to the fact that the ability and willingness to work is not suddenly lost on the 65th birthday. Most people still want to keep working as long as they can, rather than retire just because some pension planner says they should.The growing number of workers protesting the unfair forced retirement system has had some good results, with some companies extending the retirement age or making it more flexible.Unfortunately, such companies are still rare.How long will it take before a person's right to work will no longer be ruthlessly deprived of his right to work because of increasing age, regardless of his needs, abilities and wishes? At a seminar on old age recently held in New York State, a telegram sent to the convention by the eminent old statesman Bernard M. Baruch was read out.In the telegram, Mr Baruch strongly called for the abolition of the system of forced retirement, which he said "is not a boon to those who, despite their advanced age, are willing and able to continue working Instead, think about it from a capacity perspective.”"The older you are the more likely you are the person who has acquired a wealth of experience assets that cannot be replaced," Mr Baruch said. Dr. Henry S. Cotes, who is 83 years old and still serves as a member of the Michigan Aging Research Committee, is one of the authorities in the United States in this regard. His words point directly at the discrimination against the employment of the elderly: "Forced retirement is a serious blunder in business because it leaves many of the best minds unused and it dampens the enthusiasm of those employed who want to do good work in later life. It is a grave mistake for working people and for the taxing public. The right to work is a basic human right and the existence of a 65-year-old retirement system is a fundamental human mistake." Well said, Dr. Cotes!May planners and bureaucrats come to hear the wise and powerful voices against the Forced Retirement Bill. "The system of retirement at age 65," Dr. Cotes added, "is arbitrary and arbitrary, and there is no theory, either physiological or psychological, to prove that a person's ability to work will decline at the age of 65." Sudden loss. Weakness is possible at any age, and it varies from person to person. If we stop working with our hands, our hands quickly lose their sensibility; Every worker should choose the time to give up work, when he thinks he is not qualified for his job." Work is one of the mature joys that youth cannot conceive.Whether it is physical work or mental work, it is the most amazing power that nature has given us to grow and not grow old. Anyone who wants to avoid becoming dangerous as one grows older would do well to do what the 81-year-old woman at the beginning of this chapter did: Get rid of the rocking chair and get busy!