WELCOMED LABOR
Often discussed is the extent to which welcomed labor increases productivity and quality. All agree that this quality of labor greatly improves all the results of work. There is only disagreement about the relative percentage. Some think that the results improve 20 or 30 per cent, and others even allow these improvements to reach up to 70 per cent.
Those who admit such a large percentage in the improved quality and productivity of welcomed labor do not err. The work done under compulsion cannot even be compared with that beautiful result which is attained under the heart's inspiration. The very same is decisively evident in all actions. Be it a creation of art, or be it the so-called daily task, a foundation of desirability will be everywhere a bright banner of victory.
Everyone frequently meets a special type of person who, as it were, always speculates on a fall. Like stock speculators who sell short, such people will in everything find and insist upon something definitely going down. Usually they bring upon themselves tremendous and irreparable harm, and yet they smile sourly at everything and find only defects. They do not worry about correcting these defects, because they do not possess within themselves the joy of creation. And the desire for any kind of labor is unknown to them.
Everyone has also met certain types of wage earners who seek for no responsibility. This quality appears, because of the very same lark of desire for labor. I speak about desired labor and I do not confuse it, in this case, with beloved labor. To love the welcomed labor is not difficult at all — this is no problem. Everyone encounters in his life all possible obligations; in order to fulfill them he has to apply labor. At times this labor will take place in a quite unexpected field. One may have to learn hurriedly, one may have to show a magnanimous resourcefulness. This can be attained only when the desire for labor as such has not become extinct in the heart.
I recall a story of long ago about someone who started to calculate the amount of holidays due him. His companion in conversation went along with him and began to suggest many more new holidays. Finally the lover of holidays himself became troubled at the length of the list and when he added it all they amounted to 366 in a year. Then the entire question tumbled down by itself. There should be a holiday. A holiday exists in welcomed labor. If each labor is understood as a blessing for mankind, it means that it will also be a very desirable holiday of the spirit.
A marathon of quality, a marathon of aspiration, speed in productivity — all these are beautiful marathons. In them is tested the quality of the spirit. True, in each being there is the seed of the spirit, but their condition and quality are different. Just as one should not remain static in cosmic movement so also the condition of the spirit must change uninterruptedly. Let us wish to all, and to ourselves first of all, that the chalice of the spirit may not be spilled, that the heavy drops of chaos may not shrivel the precious accumulated moisture in the chalice.
One talks about droughts. Where are these droughts? Are they only on the surface of- Earth? One talks about sun spots. Are these spots only on the sun? One could sully everything. The best purifier of such spots will still remain welcomed labor. The desire for it is not expressed in physical means. It will fierily illumine all darkness and will provide that bright smile with which one should meet the future.
Tzagan Kure
June 17, 1935
