The Fruits of Your Labor

I would like talk about two little projects I’ve done, noteworthy because I was surprised to have liked the work I put into them as well as the finished projects.  One was a clay sculpture I made in an art class.  Originally a rectangular block of clay, I carved curves into it until it the only thing it was close to resembling were those blobs you see floating around in lava lamps.  I cut a hole through it as well.  It’s not the most beautiful thing in the world, it wouldn’t get into any art gallery, but I made it.  I like it more because I remember making the cuts that gave it its form.  There was something really pure about the finished product from having created it myself, even if it wasn’t an elegant, flawless sculpture.  It’s the blemishes that make it me and remind me fondly of the work it took to complete.  It also gave me a new appreciation for the processes it took to complete an art piece, an appreciation I applied to future projects in that class to keep me from becoming apathetic about the work and trying to just get it done as quickly as possible.  I believe that this can extend to a greater appreciation of hard work in general.

Some might argue this appreciation I’m describing can only be found in art, where you can “freestyle,” so to speak, and make the work “fun.”  My second experience, the time I helped care for the garden at Saint Peter’s Episcopal Church, refutes that way of thinking.  While I didn’t decide what was planted in the garden, I did do the watering and trimming. This was a responsibility where I had less room for error than the sculpture, and I had to follow an outlined procedure rather than my own wishes, but I found I still loved doing it.  When the day was done, I could look at the colors of the garden and know that I had preserved them through my efforts, again tying the process of my work to the end result and making me more willing to invest in the next day’s work.  Merging one’s appreciation for the end result to the process of getting it done teaches one to appreciate the work itself and thus makes it seem less tedious, even if one has less freedom on how to do something and has to follow guidelines.

Now, I’m not saying work is fun all the time; there will be some bad days for doing any project or job.  I’m only trying to provide a new way to look at it so it doesn’t seem so hard that it’s avoided.  Some people might be reluctant to do the work it takes to get what they want because they believe the effort they’d need to put in is too difficult.  Finding something to appreciate about the process as well as the desired end can be the key to overcoming that reluctance.