As a knowledge worker I 've often asked my self.. is that all? At the end of the day, I'd come home and the kids would ask me what things I've done. Telling them about deals I've closed, the way my teams improved their productivity and the CSAT ratings up and any thing related to things surreal usually would lul my kids to sleep. Well, atleast I did not have to read them a story from Pooh and Christopher Robin.
I think back to the days when I was younger and I'd ask the same questions to my Dad. His answer was simple ... He inspected x number of houses found some faulty water proofing on some villas. He inspected 2 km of pipe using a long boad skate board etc. And when ever I wanted, I can almost always visit the construction site and touch the buildings my father built. I could read the plans and relate them to something solid, tangible and real.
In exasperation my mother, reminded us of the sacrifices our Dad was making under the heat of the middle eastern sun. She never failed to remind us that every grain of rice we were eating and every dinar we spent of our frivolouness came from the sweat of our Dads crotch baking under the middle eastern Sun. If that wasn't graphic enough for you, you should stick around a little longer while our parents recalls their younger days in the barrio, when they just wore slippers to school and used jute bag as school bags.
When we think back now... we smile, knowing that somehow they exaggerated alittle. Now that I have kids, I too get a chance to take them to my work place. It 's more virtual now, but thank God for my focus in Vermiculture and sustainable agriculture... I can still show them some real fruits of my labour. I think we need to do something real, tangible often... it links us to the here and now. It makes us feel useful.
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