Forty-Three Years of Menial Laboring

I am employed as a menial laborer. I have been employed as a menial laborer all my adult life; ever since I entered the American workforce. I define a menial laborer as an unskilled worker who does not built or construct anything, per se. Additionally, a menial laborer does not use his thoughts and ideas in his work, at least his thoughts and ideas are not what he is paid for. There are a lot of menial laborers around. They are dressed in florescent jackets, out on the highways filling potholes with asphalt. They are in trucks, delivering refrigerators. And they are in every big grocery store, placing bottles and cans onto shelves.

I was destined to be a menial laborer way back in my early school days. I was plainly lousy at school, and that pretty much closed me out from being a surgeon or aeronautical engineer. I was never introduced to anything like plumbing or carpentry. As close as I came was I worked in an upholstery shop where I learned to reupholster furniture, mostly antique furniture. At my peak, I made slightly over minimum wage.

On several occasions I have been asked to apply for positions as a supervisor. At times I have been told that the position was there for me if I wanted it. I was always polite and grateful when I declined these offers. There were several reasons why I chose not to be a supervisor and remain a menial laborer. Perhaps the biggest reason is that I had never looked upon my vocation as representing me as a person. My job did not define me as an individual, at least not to me. When some stranger would ask me “What do you do?” I would generally respond with something like, “I like pizza, still play basketball, and I tend to laugh a lot, or at least chuckle.” I never felt as if I were less of a person for being a menial laborer, therefore I did not feel obliged to climb the proverbial ladder to what are supposedly more prestigious positions.

Also, I never became a supervisor because the amount of pay was insufficient for the amount of stress caused by supervising menial laborers. I ought to know, being a supervised menial laborer who not only likes pizza, but who will also chuckle. I’ve never been that much into money either, not that I’m against it, of course. I was once offered a supervisor position and was informed of the pay. It was approximately half of what it would have taken for me to assume the position. Don't get me wrong, $50,000 is a lot of money, but it isn't enough to make me want to be a supervisor. I did not make a counter-offer. I just politely declined the promotion.

There have been a few bumps in the road along the way, but generally I have enjoyed my various occupations in menial labor. It was perhaps unfortunate that I was not blessed with academic prowess, but I have been fortunate that I have seemingly been endowed with some shred of wisdom and a few fibers of open-mindedness. Without these qualities things would have turned out differently, and probably not in a positive way.

I guess the bottom line is; being a menial laborer is not a horrible way to go through one’s life. I think the trick is to see your personal essence as being independent from your vocation, and to understand that you were not put upon this earth to be a corporate CEO, or for that matter, find the cure for cancer, but rather to enjoy your time on earth best you can in your own unique way, and perhaps do a few kindnesses for others along the way.