Re: What Would You Do if You Didn't Have to Work?

In response to this recent post by gary online: I am absolutely not someone who derives their worth or identity by what they do to earn a crust. If I didn’t have to work, I’d lead a richness of life that would put to shame both the wastrels[1] of inherited stolen means who live by the labor of others, and the wealthy denizens of the c-suite who earn their exorbitant salaries by becoming professional whip-crackers for the former. Here are a few things I’d like to do.

This fellow would be well fed for a start.

• Learn Launy Grøndahl’s Trombone Concerto so well I could play it in the middle of a battlefield.
• Finally get around to learning tenor clef in order to be able to do so.
• Cook for people: great big trays of vegan mac and cheese, spaghetti squash with all sorts of sauces, coconut curries, baked beans, cornbread, teriyaki, pizzas, burgers in homemade pretzel rolls, foccacia with olive oil and balsamic vinegar for dipping, crunchy palmiers, millionaire’s shortbread, tablet, dosa, sambar, kale salads with pickled vegetables and crispy tofu, orange faux chicken, seitan deli meats and country-fried steaks, biscuits and “sausage” gravy, and more.
• Learn to make stovies, vegan haggis, peshwari naan, and sourdough bread, and other delicious things.
• Get really good at programming.
• Learn C++ so that I can contribute code to open source projects like Scribus, Inkscape, and KDE.
• Focus on my health and fitness.
• Go to college and/or university, something I never had the chance to do, and learn about psychology, computer science, music, mathematics, statistics, design, and electrical engineering.
• Take courses for the fun of learning something new.
• Write more.
• Spend more time with my partner.
• Spend more time socializing.
• Go on more walks.
• Feed peas to the ducks on the river more days than not.
• Make more incense.
• Get really good at making incense.
• Try my hand at enfleurage
• Learn perfumery.
• Take a first-aid course.
• Design signage and informational material for public benefit.
• Get back into welding.
• Attempt to make soap.
• Lay in the grass on sunny days drinking shandy and eating vegan cheese and crackers.
• Get my Spanish into shape.
• Learn German.
• Learn more Scots. Maybe write something in it.
• Write music.
• Wile away afternoons in cafés drinking tea.
• Search for resins and local aromatics.
• Take the bus to different towns just to walk around.
• Read more books.
• Not worry about what time it is.

1. You ever meet one of those modern Bertie Wooster types? It’s all bottle service, trips to Dubai, and overpriced yet under-seasoned lunches. Wealth truly is wasted on the wealthy. ↩︎