Everyone Should Have a Trade

I've now had several conversations with Aaron, relatives, and friends about how members of my generation don't possess many tangible skills - skills that might cushion a harsh lay off or unexpected turns in life.  This is disadvantageous to society, in general.  Why else did we take shop or home economic classes as teenagers in high school?  Educational institutions, teachers, and parents should make more of an effort to encourage students (especially young children) to explore various types of crafts and artistry.  It's detrimental to students when elders counter their creative aspirations to become singers, actors, writers, painters, chefs, etc. with saying something along the lines of, "You'll never make a decent living doing that."  Creativity should be rewarded, now so maybe more than ever.

Just recently, I joined a number of groups and associations through the professional social networking site, LinkedIn, to become educated about the topics being discussed in journalism and multimedia industries today.  Being a new member of these organizations, I automatically receive updates and notifications in my Gmail inbox every time a new discussion begins or a post is made addressed to the group.  Today, one such notification highlighted an article that chronicles several job seekers who weighed the possibility of going into professions in which they use their hands and found success or personal fulfillment (or both).  John Melendez, the author of this article , encourages individuals to take risks when opportunities are presented (especially when circumstances allow for transition in one's life) and applauds the people he profiled for their departure from white to blue-collar work.

Melendez wrote another article about one man's decision to simplify his life and un-clutter his mind once he was laid off.  After reading this piece, you might get the sense that Bob enters a realm of something similar to Buddhism, realizing how little he needs to survive, how to adjust to a slower pace of life, and how to enjoy and live in the moment.  These are all things we can learn to do.