What are you worth?

So looking for jobs is always a bit of a fun exercise in self-worth. I have been told it has not always been this way, but that my generation grew up in times of economic security and prosperity, and are relatively spoiled in this regard. But...

My grandfather sat me down when I was 12 and told me that what was most important in life is to find a job, and to stick it out till I retired. Life, for him, was clearly split into the time that prepared you for working, the time that you worked, and then the reward of retirement for a life of good work.

The problem is that he found himself retired and a widower, with a half-completed dream house that he could barely will his body to get around, and a dysfunctional family. Some reward.

But when it comes to self-worth, there is an other tricky issue. What makes me worth more than the man with no education who farms 12 hours a day for barely a dime? Is there some intrinsic difference of worth that says that I should earn $12 an hour, and he $0.10? Seems like I have had different opportunities, and that is about all.

In a world where economic disparity is prevalent and real, perhaps, then, a better question is not what I am worth but rather what do I need, and what can I provide. What potentials and opportunities lay ahead of me, and what must I do to take advantage of those to the fullest?

Hmmm... not sure that makes life any easier.

~ matt

Trip is over...adventure begins.

Blogs are kinda fun in that they can be excellent sounding boards for ideas, social update tools, sources of information, etc. It turns out for them to serve any of those functions, I have to write in them, and you all have to read them...

*crickets*

Well, I will write anyway, and who knows... perhaps someone floating around the depths of the internet will someday read it.

Job hunt is going well-ish. Have hopefully a job offer from Pioneer Hi-Bred later today. It would help if I were still secure in my ideas of what i would like to do with myself. My current ideas are:

I want to breed plants with a place in an over-arcing holistic approach to sustainable agriculture that focuses on the farm as an ecosystem with an inherent great complexity of interactions. The organic movement has claimed the "holistic" label for better or worse, which cracks me up or depresses me (depending on the day). Nothing is greater than hearing someone tell you all about how their dogmatic avoidance of specific technologies and tools, and dogmatic interference with natural systems is a "holistic" approach.

I do not think that a holistic approach has to be hostile to science and technology, which is how most who claim to be taking the "holistic approach" take it.

Just my 2 cents.

Additionally, I have a new wisdom tooth coming in where my old one was pulled, which is super cool, let me tell you. Who has teeth coming in at 25!?! Seriously!

~ matt