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[ 3 and a half minute read ]
How I measure myself
I like to write. Lately, I go to sleep thinking about writing. Some people like to 'do' crossword puzzles and subscribe to monthly collections of logic puzzles; I used to. I have qualifications in marketing, logistics, and accounting, and some others. But I am not measured by my qualifications; neither should I be.
It has always puzzled me that many people believe that simply because they can prove they have a certificate in a subject that they chose to study, they are worth more than someone else who does not have a certificate of completion. I have been an employer in a logistics related role and paid the workers more than I paid myself each year. What the drivers, porters, and office staff did not have, which I did, was immunity to being dismissed. Of course, I could have been disqualified as a company director; or imprisoned for fraud or something; or a bank might have insisted on repayment of a debt or something. However, I did not run my business in such a way as to place anyone, including employees; stakeholders; or the public; or me, in any more danger than they, or I, might normally be elsewhere. I do not measure my worth by how much money I earn, spend, or have managed to retain.
My worth is measured this morning, by how many tomatoes there are on my tomato plants.The plants are a metric on how attentive I have been; that is, what I have done to, and with them, up to the present time (Not Great). I can extrapolate from this, a crude idea of how I have been to my neighbours. I have nodded; stopped for brief conversations; and left art supplies outside on the pavement, to be considered as gifts for grandad and grandma; teenagers - with creativity their driving force; and parents , who never considered art as something to do with their young charges. But, like the tomato plants had infrequent watering, I did not take more than a few moments to throw something at my neighbours. Of course, if I was rich, and wrangled extra time from my workers, and showed my wealth off, I could throw off my feigned accent and polysyllabic latinate words, and be worth something, even if I did not grow tomato plants and neighbours - 'I have accomplished everything you consider to be of worth! Tomato plants and sociability be damned, I am good enough!' But, not quite because, I might have won my current financial wealth on the horses, or be a feckless lout and got a windfall on the lottery. These methods are better than having no means of being in receipt of wealth, but far worse than being an international gangster because taking one's position in life is honourable to oneself. Having moneyed parents says that someone in the family wrested valuable time and labour from workers to add to the gain of 'The Family'. Honourable achievement, except if the workers were foreign workers in foreign countries. 'Goose and Gander', I say. That, by the way, is not to say that exploiting foreign people in foreign countries is acceptable; I don't think it is, just as I don't think getting rich by absorbing the majority of other people's time and energy is acceptable. So, what can we do?
We can wave a piece of paper under the noses of the suspecting crowd and cry, 'I am educated!'; 'I am a chemist; a writer; an artist; an I.T. Specialist', and the wary mob look away.
'Well, that's alright then. Working in McDonalds is an honourable job for someone with a degree. They are not doing it because they can't do something else.'
The point I am trying to make is, that none of us are worth anything if we do not produce something.
Here is my wealth: I know something about myself - I write posts in a Personal Blog. I am not a blogger. I am a lazy fool with a hobby. I like to write. Lately, I go to sleep thinking about writing. .