Rizal

Work and Spirit

Thomas Erickson

1995

This essay was an email note written in response to a friend who asked me to reflect on the role of spirtuality in the workplace for a project he was working on. At the time I wrote this, I had been telecommuting to my job at Apple in California from my home in Minneapolis for two to three years.

I've had the theme of work and spirit lurking about the edges of my thoughts all day. But I'm not quite sure how to bring it into focus.

Perhaps the place to start is here and now.

It's about 5:30 in the evening. Right now I'm sitting on my screened-in front porch, watching and listening to a thunderstorm. Cool, moist air is blowing past me, and through the house. I just finished a snack, a bowl of blueberries and milk. I sit here and hear thunder and the wind in the tress and dogs barking and the whish of cars driving past (some are driving too fast for a residential area!). And of course, I have my powerbook, which is where I'm writing this note to you.

There's nothing special about any of this, which is why it's a good place to start. I believe that true spirtuality is manifested in the ordinary, everydayness of life. And, for me, spirituality has to do with the awareness of the richness and interconnectedness of life. That's why, in a sense, my present position of working out of my home feels right.

A neighbor just passed by, carrying an umbrella, and walking his dog.

In many important ways my home is a much richer, connected place for me, than work (as, perhaps, it ought to be). Consider the contrast between my work day at home, and my work day as it would have been a week ago at my Apple office. Here, I'm sitting on the porch, listening to the rain; there, I would mostly be insulated inside a giant building -- I could actually miss a rainstorm. Here, I had a snack of blueberries and milk; there I probably would have gotten a latte -- it's too much extra effort to keep perishable things like blueberries and...