Dirty Jobs

What did you want to be when you wanted to grow up? I personally wanted to be an entomologist for quite awhile when I was growing up until I moved on to thinking about all the other cool things that I could do when I became an adult. No matter what it was, I knew that I wanted to do something that was fun and extremely exciting. Anyone who watches TV these days has had to of noticed that many of the programs are beginning to document and glorify extreme and dangerous jobs, showing anything that is out of the ordinary. Anytime you switch on the Discovery Channel the programs are full of reality shows on extreme, physical, out of the ordinary, and many times extremely manly jobs, shows including Dirty Jobs, Ice Road Truckers, Axemen, and Deadliest Catch (what could be more manly than catching crabs off the frozen seas of Alaska for a monstrous profit?). It seems that our culture has an extreme love for people with extreme and exciting ways of making a living.

Along with this love for the out of the ordinary occupation, there also seems to be a cultural aversion toward the ordinary desk job. Movies like and shows like Office Space and The Office are already giving us pictures of how redundant, alienating, and ridiculous corporate, dead-end jobs can be. It has also been very easy to see this aversion in my own thoughts and those of my roommates. All three of us have voiced that we have absolutely do not want a desk job in the corporate sector and are selecting occupations that get us out "normal" work environments. I am seeking a job in the Outdoor Education field, Jon, one of my roommates, is going to be a campus ministry intern, hardly a "normal" job, and Jason, my other roommate, has voiced that the last thing that he would want right now is to have a job with a cubicle and a desk.

So why do so many people, especially young people, feel so threatened by typical jobs within the service sector. I can't answer for everyone on this subject, but I can offer some of my thoughts on why I would prefer to have an abnormal occupation. There are many different reasons why I would not want a desk job right now, for reasons such as fear of repetition and alienation, boredom, and loss of a sense of purpose, but I think one of the biggest reasons why I want to work in a place free of indoor monotony is because its element of grounding to the earth. In the book The Prophet, Kahlil Gibran speaks about work as being a way to be connected to the cycle of the earth because everything else in the universe does work as well and is able to see and reap the fruits of its labor. I think that all work has some fruit to some extent, but it just seems that some work has more visible fruit than others, giving us a much more concrete feeling of accomplishment and contentment. Whether you are a farmer, a minister, a painter, or a hot-air balloon pilot, it just seems like there is more fruit in their jobs rather than composing TPS reports all day long.

In addition to these thoughts, I also can't get away from the romantic, exciting elements of an adventurous jobs that seem so tempting to children as they think about what they want to be when they grow up. Perhaps I am still young and naive, but I still can't get away from those thoughts of adventure. I am always encouraged by the words of Yvon Chouinard, the founder of the Patagonia outdoor company and renowned Yosemite rock climber: "The Lee Iococcas, Donald Trumps, and Jack Welches of the business world are heroes to no one except other businessmen with similar values. I wanted to be a fur trapper when I grew up." The world is a lot bigger than money, and maybe the way that we make and spend our time money should reflect that.