Work, Money, Desire

I always think it's so much more amazing when people do things for free.

"Well, obviously", is the expected response to that. Who doesn't love free things? Think about it for a second, though.

All throughout history, society has been run by the dollar sign. Do this for us, we give you money. You have money, you can live a good life. Fair enough. People don't wake up and go sit behind a gas station counter for minimum wage because they like it. People do not become plumbers because they enjoy what that job entails. People do not spend thousands on law school to become an attorney without expecting some kind of monetary return in the long run. I recall a psychologist once telling me that he hated roofing. It was the worst job that he had ever had. It was so bad, he went to med school to avoid it for the rest of his life. I asked him if he liked his job now, complaining that I hated my at the time gas station job. "This is my gas station", he told me, gesturing to his office. Wow. That hit me, as a very young adult with a naive view of the world, that this professional doctor was only here to avoid worse consequences. I then came to realize: so has it been for all of history.

Underneath every desire to work, though, or at least in most cases, there's always a sense of genuine interest or pure reasoning for doing that particular job that goes beyond "making money" or "being comfortable". The genuineness can be a base or higher motivation, but waking up and going to work is very rarely done so with the singular goal of racking up more dough.

"I need to provide for my children. Time to go serve fries at McDonald's."

"I find the human mind interesting. Let me study psychology."

"I don't want criminals to go free. I want society to be safe. Let me become a cop."

Dr. So-and-so didn't go to med school because he pulled that decision out of a hat. At least, I hope not. Working isn't just a means to end - I feel like there's something intrinsic in us that wants to work, to produce something, something only we can do, something that uses our personal talents to contribute to the world and to others. Everyone has that motivation.

What really gets me - in a good way - is when people use that motivation outside of necessity. I grew up as a recluse, so I was heavily involved in internet communities as a teenager. It was there that I realized that people were willing to do things for free if they loved it enough. People draw pieces of art in tribute to other works that they enjoy, people make websites dedicated to their favorite thing, people write fan fiction (although my opinion on this is another story altogether, it's the effort that impresses me) simply because they love the characters, people start blogs because they like movies, and they want to talk about movies, and share that love with others. People produce things out of a genuine sense of love for a particular thing. Now that the internet is more prolific, many people are exposed to fan works like this on a daily basis. Of course, people have been doing things like this for a long time, but the internet has been my generation's primary experience with this kind of thing, and I don't think doing stuff just to do stuff was as popular a venture when you couldn't put it online for God and everybody to see and value. I feel, however, like people take for granted the charity that they're being given by hard working souls who pour their being into their work for no other sake than for the sake of loving what it is that they do, or loving what someone else has done and attempting to bring that love to others.

Anyone who does something for free is a saint, in their own way. All the power to them.

Anyone who does things for not-free is still cool, though. Keep society going, and all that.