Chopping Wood, Carrying Water

There are few things in life more satisfying than going to bed physically tired and immediately falling asleep. Not exhausted and wrung out but pleasantly weary after a long hike or a particularly exuberant roll on the mat or session in the weight room or hike or whatever else you do to celebrate the motion of your body.

I am of the privileged class who spends all day sitting in front of a screen. (Well, three screens for MAXIMUM EFFICIENCY.) I answer emails after email, typing the day away in between video conference meetings where I make an affirmative effort to show engagement by over-emoting with my face; nodding and smiling enthusiastically while scrolling through reddit.

I "work" in the sense that I labor and create value for my company by offering them opinions on the things they pay me to have professional opinions about, but I don't work in the classical sense of the word.

I haven't always been chained to a desk. In times past, I sweated through summer days in an auto shop throwing tires around and I've spent double shifts on my feet wrestling kegs into place and slinging drinks. In those days, I would feel that ache in my feet and tightness in my back when I settled down for the night and my muscles were sore. Sleep came quickly, and it was satisfying (except for the knowledge that I had to do it all again the next day).

I recognize the fact that I am not spending every day in the scorching Florida sun or otherwise relying on my ever-aging body to perform manual labor is a good thing and I am lucky to have had the opportunities that put me where I am but sometimes it's hard not to romanticize the more physical professions. Especially when I find myself strapping a pedometer to my wrist just to ensure I walk a magic number of steps every day and pay too much money to throw weight around in a gym to artificially inflate the level of physical activity enough to keep my corporeal form from atrophy and corpulence.