All about Perspective

Career

I was at my weekly meeting with myself this Friday.  After I wrapped up and put things away, the man sitting behind my struck up a conversation.  He asked me, "You have to read a lot for your job?"  I told him that I do.  He asked me what I do and I told him that I work at a bank.  He took a look at me and said it would be great to be able to wear a cool black suit like mine and to work in an office everyday.  I told him that most days it's really great, but there are some that are very stressful.  I explained that sometimes it's difficult to leave my worries at the office.  I then proceeded to tell him about a client that was mad at me last week and how I carried it through the whole weekend; replaying the scene over and over in my mind.

I asked him what he does and he said, "I work in  a body shop."  I told him that must be good job.  Kind of sullen he said, "My body is broken down and my joints hurt all the time. Boy, I wished that I would have went to college." He mentioned college twice now.  To that I told him he could go back even at the age of 54 or maybe even start his own body shop.  He explained that the owner of his shop works until ten every night and that wasn't something that he would like to do.  We parted ways with a quick, "God bless."

While walking back to my car I couldn't get over the fact that someone envied me.  I was just astonished by his comments.  This reminded me of a talk that I attended a couple of years ago.  In this talk a successful business owner told us about the time when he pulled up to a road crew working at a construction site.  One worker on the crew was holding a stop sign that he would turn when it was time for you to go and then turn it again when it was time to stop. 

The speaker looked at this man and envied him for a moment.  He said to himself, "How great that would be.  This is the only thing that man with the sign has to worry about.  I bet he doesn't go home thinking about that sign or lays in bed thinking about it. I can't leave my work behind when I leave my office. Whether I go on vacation or when I lay down at night, there it is, invading my thoughts all the time." 

I guess every vocation has its own blessings and curses.