The scene: a pleasant pastoral setting. Ben Franklin sits on the shore beside a pond. The Duck passes by him.
"Hello, Ben Franklin. What are you pondering today?"
"I am pondering the nature of industry."
"What is industry?"
"That, my duck friend, is the question."
"Can I help?" quacks the duck.
"I don't know. I think not. You always look so serene."
"Does serene mean 'paddling like hell to stay afloat?'"
Franklin pauses. "Yet, you are so unruffled," he muses. "Thus your industry is concealed. So serenity is concealed industry. Whereas I, though I wish to be industrious, do not even seem serene."
"You need to paddle?"
"Perhaps. Or need to seem to paddle."
"That's weird."
"Yes, I live on land. But in human terms, my efforts must be visible to others."
"That's weird too."
"Industry is not work itself. But the appearance of labor. Your pond conceals your labor; my effort shall conceal my sloth."
In actuality, Ben Franklin wrote, " I took care not only to be in reality industrious and frugal, but to avoid all appearances to the contrary. I drest plainly; I was seen at no places of idle diversion. And, to show that I was not above my business, I sometimes brought home the paper I purchased at the stores thru the streets on a wheelbarrow."
What do you think constitutes industry?
[post written in conjunction w/risatrix]
Medievalism, and migration
5 years ago
Packing up all my stuff to go to work, getting the motivating cup of coffee, preparing to concentrate, and then reading your blog.
ReplyDeleteI am often seen hauling large piles of papers to grade through the department so as to seem industrious. Sadly my efforts are often undermined when I am also seen to groan loudly and hold my head as I try to understand how a student, having come so far in life, can hand in a paper so drear.
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