"Does our working shape us?

Depending on what you do, you might answer that readily in the affirmative, strongly in the negative, or you might just need to ponder it a bit.

I suspect artists would answer readily that their working shapes them. They might not even see their work as ‘work’, more as creative flow. I wonder if someone in a call centre or a labourer on a building site would just as quickly answer in the negative. Work for them simply means money in the bank. They might be working for the weekend when ‘real life’ begins.

Others might need to ponder this.

The question troubles us mostly because we are dualistic in our work. Work is something we tend to separate from our character. It is something we ‘do’ rather than something that shapes who we are. It is separate from our faith also, and once we talk about shaping, we have to ask who is shaping us, and into what mould?

Something I wrote for a great website. Check it out!