“What do You Do for A Living?”
Hello, Dri!
This is a reply to a letter on your blog in 2015. Been wanting to write for a long time but I’m so tired lately. There are so many things on my plate. BUT it’s your birthday and I am planning to write it as a birthday gift. I don’t know if you think it’s special or a curse but you did came out to existence 28 years ago. You didn’t die at 27. In fact, at the age of 27 you finally get clarity with some things; clarity about neurodiversity, priorities, and a awesome partner. Sorry, and congratulation at the same time I guess haha. I hope things get more and more bearable for you each day.
Anyway, when I said there are many things on my plate, mainly I am doing things to make a living. I took too many projects/things to do, of course because I need the money, but I think big portion of it is because I can’t bear to not doing anything. I can’t be alone with my own thoughts. But I finally finished the work with the translation and Ramadan should be easier because things slow down for some reason. But yeah, that what humans do, almost 50% of our live, we do things to make a living.
Interesting word. Make a living.
I like semantics, and I often find out the origin of a word via google in the use over time feature. And I couldn’t find the origin of the phrase. Did that occur due to capitalism? agriculture era? Maybe I’ll find out later when I dig into 30th-ish page on google.
We often discuss whether life is worth to-make-a-living-for with a series of obligations and living systems that already exist as they are today. Mostly we agree that it is not. I also never liked the phrase, make a living. When we say make a living it’s always mean working. Grinding for money. I remember Devina Harianto once wrote in the newsletter that she despises it as well. I hate the term “earn a living” in English because it narrows the meaning of life to a transaction of wages, time and effort, not a gift.
In Indonesian we say “mencari nafkah” and even it is untranslatable directly, maybe we can say “penghidupan” but it is rarely used in common conversation. When I search of nafkah, it mainly translated as alimony. But somehow I really like the word “penghidupan”; I think about rural live like lakoat kojawas, supportive community, sustainable living. It just sounds more poetic than the English one.
People destroy and destruct many things, just to “make a living” while I think “living” doesn’t have to put arrogance, and greed in the way. It is awfully scary to see how things turned out.
It’s a fairly weird age to live in, at the moment.
Watching the human race attempt to protect itself from itself.
Despite many things happened, and your own battle in your mind. You are still alive today. Despite pandemics, war, and many other shitty things that are happening. You are unfortunately still here. And you have made “living” by being a person with high self-awareness and humility.
Not a day goes by when I don’t remember your little and large kindnesses. You have survived so many fragments in your journey from nothing to nothing. I’m sorry, and congratulation at the same time. I hope things get more and more bearable for you each day.
