Why Care?
I read an article not long ago (I can’t remember where) that talked about what a recent change it was for people to believe that their job needed to have some sort of meaning and satisfaction. It used to be that what you did for work was just what you did for work. What is it that makes people want whatever they do for forty hours a week mean something? Or for that matter, why do they want the rest of their life to be “meaningful,” whatever the happens to mean for them?
I’m not questioning whether they should or shouldn’t feel that way, or act on it. I’m just curious about why humans developed that particular impulse. I donated blood last weekend, am scheduled to donate platelets in a couple weeks, and started thinking about what beyond simple compassion drives people to do things like this.
It’s an interesting thing, once you start thinking about it. I don’t have any conclusions yet. I’m still just raising the question.
Of course, this whole philosophical interlude might be simply a way to avoid discussing my writing over the weekend. Which was non-existent, other than some editing. But I’m doing my best to climb back up into the saddle.