I sat behind the counter, where I often find myself because, well, the store is just too crowded to wander about. Watching the people fuss over sizes and styles, helping them not fuss as much, and then “have a nice day” them right out the door.
Rinse and repeat. Day in and day out.
But I don’t hate my job. The location is beautiful. The customers are generally pleasant. The work is…work, you know. It’s like enough. But is it?
There doesn’t need to be outright hatred for there to be a lack of love, passion. Remember in the Bible how it said:
“So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth.”
Yeah, Revelations; the trippy book.
Lukewarm, nothing especial. Ideally, describes someone who is living merely by Function. Function are the things you have to do; survival mode. “Function” is the approach that you do what is practical at the expense of all other pursuits.
What other pursuits, you may wonder? Certainly not the evasion of responsibility, but the incorporation of something more, something called “Purpose”. I go into my job, that I don’t particularly hate, and then go home and clean up, eat, consume a bit of entertainment. Function!
There is more to be had though. You feel it first before you see or understand it. You don’t HATE the arrangement of your life, but there is nothing hot nor cold about it. You’re in a room-temperature life.
Purpose vs Function, that is the theory I’ve been stuck on for the past couple of years. Maybe it is because my life feels more like a swamp than a river? I see friends and acquaintances rolling along, right on by. Suddenly Function doesn’t feel like much at all.
It’s not. We need to live Purpose, not just Function. Finding it is probably the easy part. Crafting a Purpose-centric life is going to be an uphill climb. It is easy, comfortable, to just fulfill a Function.
I found a purpose, and I love it. When I’m living my desired Purpose, the sense of accomplishment fills me up and off I go like a hot air balloon. It’s amazing how Purpose can lift you above Function and help you see living/life in a new way. There are days when putting a full effort into my purpose is a struggle. The desire to sit comfortably weighs heavy and I sink into the couch. Then there are the moments I put my all into my Purpose and I look it up and down and wonder why it just seems like I did a shit job? So I remind myself what life is like being merely Functional, and I’m up and at it again.
Hopefully the day will arrive when Purpose is all that I need to focus on; the Function will take care of itself. That is the dream.
Until then, another day arrives and I sit up, think of my Purpose even as I pull on my socks to get ready to muddle through the Function.
What is your Purpose? Or, what Purpose would you like to fulfill?
Writeous Ink 