Work as a Gift

What is "work"?

For now, how about we consider it "one of the gifts that builds relationships with people"?

Many people are involved in the places where we live. Family, friends, neighbors. If we broaden our perspective a little, there are people who make the shoes you wear, and people who make the clothes you wear. In the supermarket where you buy food, there are people who sell food, and people who transport it there, and people who make it. If you watch TV, there are people who make and broadcast TV programs and transmit signals, and the same goes for YouTube and TikTok.

We live within a network of human connections.

In fact, it's not just people. Families have pets, don't they? Eating meat also means there are people who raise cattle and pigs. When you use the internet, you use a computer or smartphone. Animals, objects, and information also participate in the network that supports our lives. Let's call this network where people, animals, objects, and information interact "society."

So, how does one participate in "society"?

How do we find our place in a randomly expanding network of people and non-people? One way is to be useful to others. If you are useful to others, you can have an irreplaceable role.

In a capitalist market economy, this is called "work."

In a capitalist market economy, "work" is bought and sold through money. If you do this work, you get X yen per hour. If you sell this product, it costs X yen. In this way, transactions are one-off, and we are useful to random people at random times.

However, "work" is not just about exchanging payment.

If an elderly person comes to a convenience store, sometimes staff go beyond the manual, and if you buy vegetables at a greengrocer, you might get something extra. Even in strict transactions of buying and selling that don't deepen relationships, we make small "gifts" and deepen our human connections. Even without money as an intermediary, we can become friends by helping each other and even work together.

Won't you take a moment with me to think about the "work" you've done as a gift to enter "society"?

Ryunosuke Murokoshi