ON THE DEATH BED

To work is a basic expectation from any average adult, but to work means differently to people. Ideally to be engaged at a task is to work. Many have leisurely performed tasks that they enjoy and more like playing they work.The anxiety that fuels work stems from worry about the future, both immediate and remote.Worries ranging from; how will one cater for shelter, clothing, and feeding. These have always being the basic necessities of life and are enough motivation to work. To some, these are simple desires that have to be compulsorily  met, and for others, it is at a higher level. The level which could involve a mansion as a form of shelter,wearing of designer labels as clothing, and eating choice cuisine as feeding. Even the aforementioned is but the lowest level of needs for many obsessive individuals.

Should we work to satisfy cravings and covetousness?

Why work?

The simplest ways of living have been known to promote happiness and peace of mind. To live a meaningful life is work and recreate in reasonable measures.A good balance of work on one side and recreation along with meeting of family needs on the other will most certainly bring rich rewards. A journal once read that "the recession and economic turmoil is creating a new class of casualties" these casualties range from couples who cant afford to love each other, but can't afford to divorce and are therefore forced to live dangerously with each other, children who are bitter because they have not been shown what loving sacrificially can be like.

 This same criminal (recession and economic turmoil) is further developing another breed of humans who are absolutely obsessesively overwhelmed with the art of work. Modern day men have become slaves to work.  They work on the go, with their blackberrys, i-phone, and mac-books. One can not overlook the benefits they derive from it, ranging from fulfilment, success, money, and stresss to mention but a few.

Work in the right proportion actually yeilds happiness, but overwork can be generically deadly. Stress induced illnesses such as heart disease, ulcer,migrane, obesity etc., are actually avoidable. 

A study on teanagers rated " not having enough time with parents" as their top concern. Similar concern was also expressed by some women in the U.K., and was summed up in the statement "most of the energy have been used at work and what is let is shared between the children and sleep". It is advisable not to forsake the joys of family life through the placement too much emphasis on work. That said is not to undermine the essence and importance of work in human life.

Easier said that done.

How can one have a balanced approach to work and relaxation at a time like this, when recession stares all in the face. At the point of death, many do an appraisal of their lives, mostly in-terms of what they did and enjoyed and what they did not do and regretted not doing. A man in his 75th year and preparing to die, after about forty years of a happy marriage, several vacations with children and grand children, countless county meetings with neighbours to discuss topical issues for common good of the environment they lived in, will not likely think of work. EXCEPT of course the colleagues he worked with over the years that he would miss. His room-mate at the hospital, a seasoned entrepreneur, will of course remember happily the company he reared from nothing to a conglomerate, those times when he had to face challenges of strangulating competition to survive in other to promote his brand. A brand he worked tirelessly to build which has in turn placed him on the death bed, along with a bonus of a broken marriage and poor social life.

If you would disregard the morbidity of the next imagined situation, and oblige the request, maybe a clue to the solution would be evident. Imagine yourself on the death-bed, would you say"i wish i had spent more time working".