“Good work and good works” is an essay by CS Lewis written probably before 1959 but was published before Christmas of that year in the Catholic Arts Quarterly, according to what I read in “The Imaginative Conservative.” I came across the essay while listening to something else online and immediately sought to purchase an ebook copy. I discovered that it was included in the ebook version of CS Lewis’ “Screwtape proposes a toast” and proceeded to add it to my electronic bookshelf. Not being to the manor born and therefore having little by way of private means, ebooks are a way of getting around a dearth of space and a paucity of purchasing power for hard copy books. I did a short video centered on the reading of the essay for the “Read Aloud with Grampa” series, and you can watch or listen to that on my site. Just scroll down and look for the post prior to this one. I trust you’ll find it interesting.
“Good works” include the giving of alms or the rendering of aid to the poor. When I was younger, I participated in the collection of old clothes, which included some old clothes fit only for use as rags before finally being disposed of. I have never understood why anyone would give their old clothes to others. Why can we not simply purchase new clothes for them? Why can we not simply use the means we have been blessed with to clothe them decently at affordable cost to ourselves? Could we not treat them as Professor Higgins treated Eliza Doolittle in “My Fair Lady” or as Hans Josef Wagemueller treated Lin Carver in “Devil’s Guard”? One exception of giving away one’s old clothes which I will approve of is the practice of “Hand-me-downs” from older siblings to younger in the same family, and that only because young children outgrow their clothes really quickly. Helping to clothe the poor is an example of “Good works.” Would it be incumbent on us to also help clothe the poor in a manner befitting the title of “Good work”? I certainly think so! Perhaps one other example of “giving away” old clothes which I might approve of is the selling of old, used clothes, but still in reasonably good condition by vendors or charities. I mean genuine charities, not the sort run by charlatans.
Early in the essay, the term “Built-in Obsolescence” caught my eye. Have you ever been asked to “Submit your BIO to some HR person or directly to some firm or agency with whom or with which you were seeking some agreeable employment? Well, “BIO” would, I suppose, refer to your resume, work history or some form of personal dossier, the production of which many have been trained to conjure up in order to put one’s best foot forward? “BIO”, to my mind now, also stands for “Built-in Obsolescence.” Your economic value depends on how much “Built-in Obsolescence” you are able to perpetuate before your own “Built-in Obsolescence” kicks in and you become a liability. Something to chew on. No wonder many star performers, particularly in sales, become burned out and need to resort frequently to resorts of more and more quaintness, seeming freshness, and expense. It is one way of putting off the measure of Despairing Last Resort.
As I continue reading the essay, what Steve Jobs said comes to mind. I put this quote in the post prior to this one, but I think it worthwhile to put it here again.
“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle.”
~ Steve Jobs~
Since I was a young child it has been drilled into me that whatever I did, I ought to do it well or else not at all. It reminds me of the adage that “If Christ is not Lord of all, then Christ is not Lord at all.” I’m afraid many people in this day and age will be looking for great work they love to do in perpetuity. Few there be which will eventually settle. I say “in perpetuity” in the sense that when the Lord God drove Adam and Eve out of Eden, it was because He is a most merciful God. Everlasting life in God is not the same as existing perpetually in a horribly fallen state.
Selling and advertising have become part and parcel of everyday life. There was a time when the term “Inbound marketing” was bandied about. As I understood it, “Inbound marketing” meant advertising, presenting and telling others about goods and services which people actually need and want. If people actually need and want these things, there would be no need for alluring advertising, Battleships Potemkin or the likes of attitudes like “Since they continue to pretend to pay us, we will continue pretending to work.” How shall we find ways to “Good work” in all spheres of our lives, not simply those falling in the category of “Good works”?
I shall stop here. Your thoughts, disagreements, testimony of your own experience, etc., are all welcome.