Essential Work for Inessential Workers

The search for purpose when purpose seems lost

We call work one’s occupation. Millions of us are newly, suddenly unoccupied, with nowhere to go, nothing to do. At least five of my upcoming freelance jobs were canceled. Like Times Square, my calendar abruptly went from jam-packed to eerily barren.

The latest figures are that somewhere north of 30 million Americans have lost their jobs in the past six weeks or so. This loss of work is not just an economic crisis; it’s an existential one. A brick wall has arrested our forward motion.

We are not designed to be passive. We’re designed to form bricks and lay them down, make something where there was nothing, move the human project forward. Take work away, and pleasure loses its luster. Take work away, and existence itself becomes work — a constant, itchy quest for worth, purpose, and meaning.

Work is a slog. You have to drive to the place or sit in the chair, tap on the keyboard or carry the thing from here to there, check the clock or the word count to see how close you are to being done. Even when you’re doing work you fundamentally like, you mostly look forward to it being over.

But work also sets off the boundaries of pleasure and relaxation, making their small territory more vivid, more earned. It’s hard to enjoy being in a room you never leave, even if it’s stocked with mai tais. Work lets you leave the room of ease, enabling the enjoyment of returning to it.