Currently on the train to Winchester. The Banbury adventure is over. Other than the enjoyment of staying with family, it was an interesting experience of tedium, or rather of low expectations. As I have alluded to, I dug vegetable patches and put up a fence which I then painted (or rather we painted, but you get the idea). These were the sorts of things “normal” people do of a weekend whereas for me this was my job, full time, for a week. In return I was fed and watered and given a bed. A fair trade.
It’s an interesting shift I’m making. In the past I’ve wanted my job to be stimulating – needed in fact as I was spending most of my waking hours doing it or travelling to it. And I got frustrated when either I wasn’t stimulated or I felt my energies weren’t being appreciated by the corporation I was giving them to. So I got out of that cycle.
This new cycle is interesting because, while I’m doing work that is appreciated, it’s definitely not mentally stimulating. It’s physically stimulating and I feel very good for doing it, but while I’m out there digging in the mud I’m not having to think about it. It’s similar to when I was in the bookshop doing returns all day – my job involved putting books in boxes and sending them off. Not much thought involved and a fair bit of exercise. Compare this to dealing with customers which required a bit of thought, but not too much and definitely not enough to seriously engage the mind. If I’m going to be working I either want to be using my brain properly or not at all, and since I want to be using my brain for me and for the things I care about, I’d rather not use my brain for my job in the slightest.
And what’s interesting is my mind is clearer at the moment than it has been for a long time. Unskilled manual labour – it’s bread and butter to the thinking man.
Have fun on the farm pete.