Item #54: Recalibrating Perspective

When I go away on vacation, I look for a reset experience: to relax, to down-gear, to chill-out. My most recent vacation was none of those things. It was hectic, unfamiliar and stimulating, even over-stimulating. I visited about 19 places in 14 days. I jockeyed between English, French and Italian, drove a rented manual shift car up steep hillsides and on extended suspended Italian coastal highways. I ate new foods, saw new places, drove new streets and swam new waters every day. I loved every minute of it, but a reset was not my experience.

My experience was a recalibration of perspective.

Universally Human

What became very apparent to me amidst all the unfamiliarity was the clear similarity of the worlds we humans have built for ourselves in almost every corner of the world. The same key cornerstones of daily life define us all. Interactions with people: talking, smiling, laughing, yelling, hellos and good-byes, pleases and thank yous, regardless of the language. Eating and drinking: sometimes a cheeseburger and a Coke, sometimes a pizza and a beer, sometimes baguette with cheese and a glass of white wine. Sleeping: whether it be perched on a hillside with windows the size of doors, or looking over a town square where blinds are drawn to protect against the harsh sun, or in an expansive brick construction inside a gated community. Driving: tiny cars up steep terrain, roaring sports cars on sweeping mountainous highways, or sports utility vehicles along spacious suburban streetlight-laden roads.

This is the daily life that defines us all: people, food, shelter, transport. And there’s more. But this is universal. And in the hierarchy of life, these indicate the deepest, most fundamental, most authentic, most important needs of humans.

Creators of 'Work'

Somewhere along the way, we must remember that we – humans – created something that we believed would improve the experience of this daily life I’ve just outlined. We created a tool that we believed would contribute to a betterment of this daily life: we created ‘Work’. ‘Work’ provided a number of outcomes: something to occupy our time, the creation of products and services that we believed would improve the experience of our daily lives, and ultimately through the development of this ‘Work’ into a structured system of activity, an economy. With the creation of Work, we believed we would create greater prosperity for ourselves, a more prosperous daily life.

Prosperous = Success or Economic Well-Being (Mirriam-Webster)

Let’s stay connected to the hierarchy I am clarifying here: we – humans – created Work i.e.: the manufacturing of products and the provision of services – and the consequent system of an economy - in order to occupy ourselves, provide the things we wanted or needed to improve our daily experience of life, in order to achieve greater prosperity. A human creation, Work and The Economy was intended to be a tool in our service, in service of improvement of our daily life experience.

The Recalibration

And that was the recalibration of perspective experience of my vacation. It struck me that we have lost sight of a) the original role and purpose of Work and The Economy in service of our human daily life experience and b) the hierarchical place that Work and The Economy were originally intended to play in this experience of our daily lives.

We – humans – the creators of this tool - need to raise our awareness around both of these things in order to recapture, reframe and recreate the original intentions of Work: manufacturing, services and The Economy. We – humans – the creators of this tool – need to recall that Work was created to be a tool to serve us, not the other way around. We have let the machine (The Economy) enslave us, to take on a life of it’s own, removed from its role and its purpose. We have let the machine (The Economy) separate us further from the things it was originally intended to bring us closer to. We have let the machine (The Economy) be taken away from it’s real master – everyday people – and be controlled by elites who want to abuse and manipulate it for means that are excessive and unnecessary.

We are all essentially and universally human. We talk, love, yell, eat, sleep, drink, travel and more. Work and The Economy is our creation, and we must be it’s master, not vice versa. Its role is to occupy us, to manufacture products and provide services that will improve our daily life experience so that our lives are more prosperous i.e.: successful defined by well-being.

I recalibrated my perspective over the last two weeks. And determined that this is what our economic system requires as well. A recalibration of perspective.