seasonal nature

it seems that one of the biggest differences between student life and the seemingly impending fate of a career-type job is the loss of seasonality. not a complete loss, of course - the seasons still do occur, and some careers change seasonally as well. but for the most part, in most professions, it seems to me that the day-to-day is more often than not the every-single-day-to-every-single-day. it's always been a saving of grace for me that the school year ends definitely, and dependably. granted, in university it's entirely too common that the summer consists of not much more than full-time work to finance the upcoming school year, but the change of pace, at least for me, is a welcome alternative to the possibility of having a year-round, ever-consistent day-to-day. that day-to-day sameness is one of the things that i look forward to the least pleasantly in my future. to be quite honest, i'd like to avoid it as much as possible. that's not to say that i'll refuse to be in the same job for the entirety of the calendar year, but what's the use of having a spring, summer, fall and winter if you're stuck indoors at your job for the better part (and i do mean better in both the quantitative and qualitative senses of the word) of your days? summer isn't just warm, lit, late evenings. and winter certainly isn't just cold, dark, early ones. awhy should i reduce my free every-day to just that for the sake of making money?

forget it, i say.

and, of course, i am well aware of the apparent necessity of rigorously scheduled work days and long hours in the development and maintenance of our modern-day societies and (moreso) economies.

but i also happen to disagree with it.

i think that there is a balance between economic proliferation and quality of living. a balance that teetered and came crashing down long, long ago. the industrial revolution and the rise of modern-day capitalism are wonderful things in some respects, and they've given rise to great accomplishments, leaps in technology, medicine, human rights, democratic process, and global community. but because the delicate balance of things hasn't been tended to there is also a great amount of poverty, cultural and racial disparity, gross injustice, war, violence, oppression, and many more things of such grave nature than there ought to be. and most of these things ar facts of life, as they seem to be reflections of part of human nature. as such it's probably not possible to create a human world completely free of them. but it seems to me that we're failing miserably on whole at even coming close to the mark.

it's a thought; humanitarian organizations are run and administered mostly on a volunteer basis. from a purely economic standpoint, it would appear that our society places near-zero value and utility on the greater good of the people. the invisible hand, however, seems to find more ways than i can fathom to make sure that we all have our cell phones and flashy cars and attention-grabbing commercials during our primetime soap operas.

and again, allow me to note that i'm not eschewing society at large, or the idea of a free-market economy. i do own a cell phone. i do drive a nice car. i watch the oc almost every week. i'm not arguing against everything we have. not at all. i embrace it as much as anyone else does. but i also embrace balance, and that is what i see lacking.

balance.

i'd like my cold winter nights to be balanced with the warmth of a quiet, snow-shine lit winter afternoon on a path in the mountains with the woman i love.

i'd like my warm, summer evenings to be balanced with the comfort of sleeping in on cold, rainy days in the middle of july.

i want my work days to be balanced with the rest of my life. the important part of my life. the part of my life that I'll work to enjoy, not work and have pass me by.

here's to you finding your balance in life, too.

jh..