Yeah, I guess you can call me a slacker.
No column Christmas Day. Or New Year's Day, for that matter.
And some of you notified me personally to say "hey, what the (heck)?"
Cut me a break, OK? On the rare instances I do slack, it's usually for good reason...the observances of the holiday falling on a Sunday should be enough to not burn me at the stake.
But in my own defense, I slack far less than others. Thus the basis for this week's column.
Just a few weeks ago, I covered welfare reform, and its need to start now here in Pennsylvania.
Now the companion piece, which I'm sure is awaited with the same eagerness of a prostate exam.
Which I've already been through. Not fun.
You'll note that I stole a line from Dr. Phil McGraw to head up this week's column. He actually does play a role in this, but only to a small degree.
Dr. Phil, in early 2009, had a segment called "Applying to College", where he interviewed overzealous parents pressuring their kids into reliving their own lives in younger bodies. Then there were those who were pressuring their children into picking a career at the beginning of their high school years. And then there was a young girl who wanted some free time to explore options before committing to an institution of higher learning.
We have a larger pool than ever before of jobless young people, either turning to crime or public assistance to sustain themselves.
Even at 15, when I started high school, I was still vascillating about what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. Pharmacist, mortician, attorney, air traffic controller and broadcaster all ran the gamut.
And you already know the least lucrative of all those is what ultimately won out.
It made me think, though. Have we put so much pressure on the younger generation that they're totally turned off by the experience of work?
Or not enough pressure by submitting to everything your kid supposedly 'needs'?
It's a toughie.
Lance Morrow, best known for his journalistic contributions to Time magazine once wrote "To work for mere survival is desperate. To work for a better life for one's children and grandchildren lends the labor a fierce dignity. That dignity, an unconquerably hopeful energy and aspiration - driving, persisting like a life force - is the American quality that many find missing now."
Mr. Morrow wrote this in 1981 at the height of the so-called 'yuppie' movement. It was eventually published in my English I college text "The Little, Brown Handbook" during my freshman year. Now apply it to today.
And my question is why. What has happened with the Greatest Generation and the one that preceded it? Where have we gone wrong with the once-prevalent thought that work is good for you? And for your offspring?
Here's one thought...what are we working for?
Are we working to live, or are we living to work?
Right back to what I quoted from Mr. Morrow.
It all comes down to our attitudes concerning work.
It's not just about a paycheck. It's much more than that.
You've given to society. Not just taken from it.
You've gotten out of bed and done something with the day of life that you've been given. Whether you're self-employed, work for someone else, whatever.
It's not even about the 'good-tired', 'bad-tired' thing.
You've proven your capable of more than converting oxygen into carbon dioxide. You provide for yourself and those who depend on you.
And if you're smart, you plan for the future.
If you're not smart, you become painfully aware of it as your body begins to lack the endurance it once had in youth. Work becomes tiring and painful when you have to do it to stay alive, rather than do it simply for something to do as an option during your sunset years.
An accounting firm across the street from where I once lived had on its marquee a quote (changed monthly) that I will never forget:
"The secret to happiness is to find something you truly enjoy doing...then find someone to pay you for doing it."
I heard something similar..."love what you do, and you will never work a day in your life".
The problem is, what we may love to do, even if we get paid to do it, may not pay the financial rewards we want. Thus we make a choice. What matters to us most? Loving our job, or taking another one, but loving the security and hating the job?
Some call it "selling out".
Good example of this...the baby-boom generation. The hippies at Berkeley became the Yuppies on Wall Street.
In the beginning, they sang "Come on people now, smile on your brother, everybody get together...try to love one another right now!"
Then came the first paychecks after landing their first 'real' job after college. Then they sang a different tune.
"Money...it's a hit...don't give me that 'do goody-good' bulls**t."
Of course not. That would get in the way of the payments on the Mercedes.
The truth of it all is this...if our civilization is to survive, we need to take a greater responsibility in how the next generation turns out. We can't expect them to fly blind in the wind and learn on their own.
It all comes down to building a better society.
And we need to know how to do it.
More than that, we need how to do it well.
NEXT WEEK: Building a Better Society
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