MMC4623 – Week 3 Blog Post

I was most intrigued by several of the quotes that were included in this week’s readings. The first quote, which the reading opened with, is as follows:

“Ritual, art, poesy, drama, music, dance, philosophy, science, myth, religion are all as essential to man as his daily bread: man’s true life consists not alone in the work activities that directly sustain him, but in the symbolic activities which give significance both to the processes of work and their ultimate products and consummations.”

I find it particularly true and  relevant giving our current state of existence, at the mercy of a pandemic that has changed our way of life so suddenly (unless you’re just ignoring it all and going out and about with no PPE and no intention to social distance, I guess). I have been home since before spring break. Like many “non-essential” workers, I have been working from home for a while now. The separation between being at home and being at work has become a blur. Being at home is not enough, and working is not enough, because neither is the escape or reprieve from the other that it once was when the activities existed in different physical places. I have always been someone who found “work activities” fulfilling, but I have also always been someone with a lot of interests and hobbies outside of work.

I’ve found that part of fulfillment I got out of working came from going somewhere else and doing things I did not necessarily do at home, and seeing people and having interactions I wouldn’t have at home. It made actually being home more enjoyable, because when I was tired from working, home was there. Now, they are the same place, and I’m missing out on those work interactions and the sweetness that came from being able to come home after being at work all day, and being able to look forward weekends and days off, and even looking forward to going to work. The cycle of being able to leave home and leave work and enjoying both these things as separate, fostered an appreciation for them because tiring of one meant the other was waiting. I enjoyed the cyclical aspect of going to work and coming home (or just enjoying my time off wherever) and all the things that happened in each place and at each time. It turns out that while I like my job a lot, a lot of the joy came from the ritualistic aspect of it all. My pleasant work/home “ritual” has been disrupted, and so I’ve had to lean even more heavily into all the other things mentioned in the quote to sustain me, since life is not really what was once considered “normal” anymore. I have been reading a lot more, even though I have always been a reader. My religious/spiritual identity and practices have grown and increased in ways I hadn’t expected. My dreams are more vivid, and I think I’m maybe starting to annoy my friends with overly philosophical ponderings in the group chat. I’m not entirely sure this post even makes sense, so what I’m trying to say is that I feel like the aforementioned quote is true and extremely relevant right now. Work was never the end goal or the thing that gave my life or anyone else’s life meaning. And I knew that, but it’s even more obvious now, when the illusion is gone. Some of us aren’t even working at all, and can’t go see friends or go out, and so all some people may have right now is their dreams and art and dance and poetry and so on to experience life.

DeLaDoll

DeLa Doll is a culture writer, cosplayer, and artist based in Florida. She has been writing professionally since 2016, with some of her work being featured on sites like HuffPo and /Film. She is an advocate for meaningful diversity and representation in media, a gamer, a mom, and an avid user of DIY hair dye.