Job vs. Career

We don't need jobs, we need careers. You don't get a career working at Target / Home Depot / Sam's Club / Wallmart / Wallgreen's / Dollar Store / Gas Station / Grocery Store / Retail Clerk.

From Dictionary.com

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[http://sp.dictionary.com/dictstatic/...una/thinsp.pngjob] http://sp.dictionary.com/dictstatic/...on_default.gif noun, verb, jobbed, job·bing, adjective

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1. a piece of work, esp. a specific task done as part of the routine of one's occupation or for an agreed price: She gave him the job of mowing the lawn.

2. a post of employment; full-time or part-time position: She was seeking a job as an editor.

3. anything a person is expected or obliged to do; duty; responsibility: It is your job to be on time.

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A career:

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1. an occupation or profession, esp. one requiring special training, followed as one's lifework: He sought a career as a lawyer.

2. a person's progress or general course of action through life or through a phase of life, as in some profession or undertaking: His career as a soldier ended with the armistice.

3. success in a profession, occupation, etc.

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Hey Doug!

I see you're an early bird, too...

Yeah, I was thinking about this the other day when my wife and I did a day hike along the Appalachian Trail. Along the trail is a restored cabin circa 1840. Just one room, with a fireplace. It is smaller than my home office.

The family that once lived there didn't have a large house, or central AC or even plumbing. Every day meant hard physical labor. But I suspect those people were happier than most people are today, despite our material advantages.

They owned their cabin free and clear; they were "poor" - but beholden to none.

The man was in charge of his life; he cared for his family by providing food for the table and physical security. The wife raised her children. The children learned from their parents - who were capable, competent people who lived every day.

Few of us enjoy such an existence today. I don't mean the hardship. I mean the mastery of life; of not being the degraded, impotent creature that is modern man. A creature who is at the beck and call of others; who id dependent and denied freedom of action and any hope of ever being "beholden to none."

When I was a kid, I loved reading Cooper's "Leatherstocking Tales," about life on the frontier and what it was like to be free.

I think that determined much of the course my life has taken - and it's the core reason why I loathe the system we have, which has reduced us to "consumers" when we should have been men.