Lovejobs and the Content we could all create
Do you like the word content?
I bloody didn’t.
Up until last night.
‘Plain’, ‘meh’ and ‘lazy’ came to mind as content’s word-friends at a party for the English language — held somewhere boring like parliament house, no doubt.
Why would I want to be ‘content’..?
I want to be on fire, excited and ready to rip!
But this morning I felt content.
I didn’t need anything else.
Content has upgraded it’s ticket to partying with words like radical, spectacular and frothing at a sunset party in Ibiza.
Jon Hopkins is weaving magic and there we are, content and I.
Although, she seems more interested in sitting around a fire chatting about philosophy or listening to podcasts like Krista Tippet’s On-being.
And with a smile, off she goes into the rack…
Because words for me are the spices of life.
When we understand them and take them under our wing, we can birth them into a new reality.
A reality exploding with colour.
My partner Jacqui teaches 11 year olds at a progressive primary school near our place on the Gold Coast.
I say progressive because they’re learning the things I didn’t learn till I was 26 at a college in London.
Things like lateral thinking, how to follow your passion, being brave to have autonomy of thought — aka fuck your exams.
And my favourite thing about the school is that if the kids don’t know the meaning of a word — they get to adopt it for the week.
“Open the front door!!!” (That’s an upgraded version on the standard ‘shut’ idiom).
So they adopt a word.
They take it home and nurture it.
They decide whether it goes into their vocabulary by the end of the week and whether to keep it or to let it roam free.
There is one girl in the class who doesn’t do this because she says she knows all the words.
Just thinking about her confidence makes me smile.
I suggested to Jacqui that perhaps she adopt the word ‘Ineffable’.
For those playing at home, it means ‘a description for when there are no words to describe something.’
It makes me think…
I wonder what words I would’ve adopted had this been an option at my school?
And then there’s T-Mac…
The man.
I didn’t know who Terrence McKenna was until recently and his quote is one that I recite to all who will listen:
“The syntactical nature of reality, the real secret of magic, is that the world is made of words. And if you know the words that the world is made of, you can make of it whatever you wish.”
I usually leave off the start because syntactical is a prick of a word to pronounce at the best of times, let-alone in front of a crowd.
I feel that McKenna was getting at this, but if you adopt those words and nurture them, you can level-up the spiciness of your expression.
The vitality of your language.
This is where the real magic resides.
And so why did ‘content’ get an upgrade?
Well,
Once upon a time /last night, I was holding the space for a ‘jam session’ for the community of humans of which I’m most proud.
Truth be known, I was actually fair scattered.
Out of alignment.
We’ve all felt it.
Even if you want to be there there’s something playing silly buggers with your heart, brain and mouth connection.
Still, I had just enough to show up and guide my new friends through an enquiry into the hot topic of ‘community’.
Something about the lock-down makes this crew even more special to me now.
I’ve only met maybe 15 of the now 100 or so who’ve joined us on the ‘WTF do we do now space-ship into an uncertain world’.
But their welcoming smiles and the comfort in knowing that I can bugger up a breath work practice, and they won’t hold it against me, is an ineffable feeling.
BTW- don’t ask people to wink with their eyes shut during a meditative breath… Whoopsies
So as we cruised through an hour of enquiry and dove into what a community means to us, as well as what we’d like one to look like.
We found ourselves circling Universal Basic Income and how in Australia we are in the throes of a user-test for how this could unfold.
With the grand finale: a question that could be the question that defines our generation…
‘If you could work on anything, what would it be?’
Sound familiar to the declarations we make as kids in eternal flow -
“When I grow up I’m going to be a… Rocket Surgeon!”
In the Northern Rivers of NSW, they’re calling their work ’LoveJobs.
These are the people who’s regular work has ceased, but they’re receiving money that keeps them ticking, while having time to explore jobs they love.
And guess what — for the most part it seems to be people getting involved in their communities.
People giving back.
And at the risk of sounding like a Soppy Sam — love breeds love.
Or helping breeds highs — look up ‘helpers high.’
So it was coming toward the end of our riff session and as time is our most precious asset, perched right next to words, with smiles and laughter we exited the zoom room.
Only to percolate, marinate and thinkitate (deliberate thinking mediation) on that last question…
‘If you could work on anything, what would it be?’
Or the more fun version:
‘What would be your lovejob?’
Perhaps the purpose of the Reunion crew is to inspire people around the world to come together and step into their LoveJobs?
The privilege I currently have to be able to contemplate this is not lost on me.
It makes sense to work with small communities of people to road-test prototypes that could empower the masses and not in a way that delivers a blue-print.
That’s old hat as fuck.
In a way that inspires others to activate their own version.
To write their own stories.
To love their work.
To find their LoveJobs.
And perhaps it starts with people who have the space to do it all the time — like the UBI prototype in Australia.
Or for those who can do it one day a week…
Some companies are cutting back their staff to 80% work for 80% pay.
Note: This was an option that many people in Switzerland have been taking for years.
My sense is we actually save money in this way, because we are more content with life AKA more time to just be, while looking for less escapes that cost us money.
And for those who have found themselves in the throes of working more than what they were previously,
Like the essential workers doing the real work right now.
And the examples above not even being a tangible thought, let alone option.
Perhaps it is up to us to pave the path.
Assisting them, like they are us, with an invitation to the discussion and subsequent reality we are dreaming up.
As Charles Eisenstein says to step into ‘the more beautiful world our hearts know is possible.’
I shut my eyes and exhale, minus the wink ??.
I reflect that I arrived scattered…
And departed ‘Content’
This ramble isn’t a time to get complacent though.
Because feelings do evaporate,
but the quality thought provoking communities that we may find ourselves in don’t.
They allow our unsteady ships to set-sail.
A fleet of ships delivering some inspiration to steady the others.
And settling into the slipstreams that allow us to find our Lovejobs could be just what the world needs most.
I wrote this for myself, the current Reunion crew and for future reunion crew who may join a jam session and perhaps get to feel what I felt this morning.
‘Content’ as I sat down to pencil this reflection.
Much love,
Benny
This article first appeared on the garden