What if life is more than just work? What if I let go of my American ideals and let friendships, food and long days sitting in relative nonactivity count for more? What if I gave less value to papers filed, emails sent and an over-packed schedule? What if I let productivity fall into the background, and let being present take the limelight?
Work is important, no doubt. It gives many of us meaning, purpose and direction. It fills the pages of our lives and hopefully the pockets of our purses.
As an American, I grew up with a Protestant work ethic that taught me to work hard and work long. I juggled 3 jobs all throughout college and still thought that somehow, I wasn’t doing enough. I defined myself through the work I accomplished, and I still find myself doing this even today.
Redefining My value
Living in Africa has challenged me to rethink how I define myself. The people I have shared life with over the past 3 years in both Madagascar and Zambia work and work hard. Though work is not the primary measure of success in the same way that it is for Americans, like me.
Family, social networks and culture are characteristics that more commonly define self-worth and success for many of my friends here and in Mada. An afternoon spent prepping, cooking and eating a meal with a visitor is in many ways more important than filling out the form that visitor came to collect.
I am thinking very specifically to past trips I’ve taken for data collection. I want to get in, get out and be on to the next site. I have a job and I need to complete it. That is not what happens at all though. Instead, we draw out our greetings. I am expected to sit and enjoy the drinks and meals that are placed before me. It’s not for another hour or so that I can collect the data and move on. I will collect the data eventually, but the relationship is what matters.
For me, that doesn’t feel like work. I feel like I am cheating the system or worse, failing to accomplish what I set out to do. Eating lunch and sitting under a mango tree can’t be considered work in my mind. My heart starts to race and my mind speeds. I feel less whole because I am not “working” and thus not productive.
Life beyond work
But what if life is more than just work?
I am forced to ask myself this question day in and day out. I am challenged to set aside my value-system daily and try on that of a new culture’s. Now a days, I spend afternoons sharing stories, sharing meals and sitting. There’s a lot of sitting.
And maybe, just maybe, that’s good enough.
