World Enough and Time

I guess Bette Davis did like gravy.

Do you like money?

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cupati.livejournal.com

Yes, and you certainly don't want to waste it by turning it into gravy...

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Think of it as tea.

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cupati.livejournal.com

On top of potatoes? [I'll skip the meat too.]

[I'm not as big a teadrinker as I might suggest.]

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Are you vegetarian? If so, cool.

I'm drinking tea as I type here...

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Hee hee. Does pretty much sum up my position on work though. Of course, there is no gravy in my job! Luckily, there are plenty of meat and potatoes!

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NOt much gravy in my life either, but that's okay. Gravy is fattening and optional.

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I do like gravy though! :-)

Money is very nice. But though, my husband and I both have relatively low paying jobs for our educational levels, they're high in certain types of things that make up for it! And certainly enough to live comfortably!

I do like knowing I can research what I like and the independence of the job and the creativity in a good cause.

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I hesitate to talk about money because when I think about it too much I end up panicking.

Creativity matters more to me, though.

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I hesitate to talk about money because when I think about it too much I end up panicking.

Sorry! Just didn't want to sound ungrateful and like I don't have any money. Balancing on that thin line between complaining about not having enough and sounding ungrateful because you really have plenty.

Creativity is hugely important!! And I'm lucky to have that freedom in my job. That's mostly what I meant to say! :-D

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Understood! And I certainly value comfort. (Looking out the window nervously at a very snowy day.)

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Understood!

Cool!

(Looking out the window nervously at a very snowy day.)

One good thing about a very moderate climate -- it may not get warm in the summer, but at least it doesn't get too cold or snowy in the winter! Then again, England is just always too cold for me!

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The winter I spent in England - the temperature never went very low, but I've never been so cold! I think it's the dampness.

We're having a delightfully mild winter here. I really have nothing to complain about. Went for a lovely walk at lunchtime - the snow stopped falling, the sun came out. Beautiful!

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Hee hee, how great! I had a similar experience -- I've been trying to go for walks at lunchtime everyday as part of my new exercise regime. The last three days it's been raining in the morning and great by lunchtime with even a bit of sun. Today it was sunny on and off, but the wind was so strong it was a bit crazy. But I was in the mood to enjoy fighting the wind, so it was all good. I'm so glad to be getting in much better shape than I've been in for many years!

I'm glad you had a great walk at lunchtime too! :-D

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I hesitate to talk about money because when I think about it too much I end up panicking.

Me too.
'Gravy' would be nice. I've never had enough of it (commensurate with qualifications and abilities), and have no long-term security...
I am able to get on with my writing just now, but I get hassled by the JobCentre about having to prove I'm "actively seeking employment".

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So we muddle on and cope as best we can. I try not to compare my situation to that of others. I try not to let worry about it consume me. I try to be optimistic.... and I'm taking steps to minimize the lack of security as best I can. It remains scary, though.

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I miss the chance to create. I mean, of course I have plenty of room, I can write I can work on my thesis (the closest I get to work) but I have no great drive there so it doesn't feel like meat and potatoes, more like a bit of lettuce on the side (not even a proper salad). I wan't something to be part of, I think (might that be the proper greens?).

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Yes, proper greens is a good metaphor. It's what a lot of people are looking for. Sometimes I think I'd find it if I went back to university and had a thesis of my own to work on; but sometimes also I think I have other work that's better, more important.

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This would be my ideal if I'm ever published. And yet, I'm completely happy just writing and not 'getting the gravy.'

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You get the meat and potatoes because you have a day job.

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I thought the meat and potatoes was my editing and research, lol.

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Meat and potatoes is whatever you want to make it! But something has to pay for food and rent, one way or another.

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I guess I was just viewing that as 'rewarding work,' as opposed to paid work. The gravy would be if I eventually got paid for it, lol.

My day job is rewarding, in a less personal way.

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without any gravy you'll literally starve. Or is the Gravy Bette Davis referred to more like the icing on the cake?
(BTW I live on minimum income, and am dependable on the descisions of the doctors who decide on disabillity allowence. Hardly secure.)

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People with economic security in their lives are truly fortunate.

Yes, I think Bette Davis means 'icing on the cake'. Does this bring the topic back to Marie Antionette and 'let them eat cake'?

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Does this bring the topic back to Marie Antionette and 'let them eat cake'?

I don't know. It depends a bit on Bette Davis background. If she never ever had any struggle and faced any economic hardship, taking a certain amount of affluence for granted, than perhaps yes.

I find it remarkable that many of those who responded to the quote said they didn't need gravy. Well I most certainly do. It is easier to take it for granted if you are secure in your source of income (or your abillity to find an other one).

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It depends a bit on Bette Davis background.

A quite look at her background on Wikipedia didn't give me much indication. She seems to have worked very hard - but it doesn't seem as if she came from a background of poverty.

Maybe people interpret 'gravy' differently? Or its connotations? I certainly need the satisfaction of creativity, and a certain degree of success with creativity is - I think - necessary. Moreover one needs to be able to survive from day to day. Too much hard work in the name of survival, or fear that basic needs will not be net, can kill creativity pretty fast.

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Well I don't as yet write for a living, and retain a day job, so I am ok not having gravy with my writing, I have gravy with my day job (lol at this conversation). Obviously if writing was all I did I'd be in trouble right now!

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well, I am glad you are not starving. And it is also good to read that your dayjob brings its own enjoyments. To feel you have no choice but do souldeadening work or starve is by no means a pleasure. (but the reality for many on this earth, I fear.) I am lucky in many respects, in living in the country I do, in being smart and capable to defend myself (not neglecting paying my rent and ending on the street like many psychiatric patients unfortunately end up to). Having parents who care for me (also financially). Stuff like that.

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I like your icon!

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Yeah, at some point this conversation started to make me hungry. Must be suppertime!

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Haha! Luckily, I was taken out for dinner (for my b-day, by a coworker) spontaneously! after work.

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Is it your birthday?

Sounds like a delicious occasion, in any case!

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Sunday is my b-day. :)

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femme-slash-fan.livejournal.com

hah... my life's all meat and spuds.

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duncanmac.livejournal.com

For much of life (i.e. from the late 80s through into the new millenium), I ^have^ been able to enjoy that. The last few years haven't been very good to me that way. It gives an all new meaning to the word "hungry," doesn't it?

My *current* job hasn't been too bad, but given that I may be *again* jobless by May has not helped. I don't really want to be "hungry" again, thanks. :-(

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Being hungry isn't much fun.

Neither is a life without gravy.

As for security - on the general spectrum of life, all my choices have tended away from the secure, since my temperament is to prefer other options. I have no regrets about that, but sometimes the prospect of living forever without security is frightening.

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I wanted security. I believed that if I was good and studied hard and got good degrees, I could get a permanent post either in a university or a museum...
But the social fabric here was shredded in the Thatcher years, and Blair and co. have turned Labour into Conservatives-lite... The professions have been casualised. A 2 or 3 year contract is now about as secure as it gets in many fields. Expertise is devalued in favour of marketing. It's all about marketing now: learning to "sell yourself" to employers, regardless of your skills. (I don't believe in myself as a product, so how can I do that?)
Sometimes I wish I had died 20 years ago, before I was thoroughly disillusioned with this dungheap of a society.

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wishing you heaps of gravy, coming with the meat and potatoes of your liking.

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Thanks. As I mentioned in my own LJ, I saw a careers adviser on Monday, who said the problem was I wasn't "playing the game". I have to pretend not to be academically inclined, remove my real interests and achievements (such as my publications) from my CV, and bolster the more trivial things... It's a dumbed-down world, and only marketing and management-speak matter.

Luckily, I have my research to keep me sane. An 862-ish hunk is not a bad toy to play with...

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I am not enchanted with a dumbed-down world. I want a smarted-up world.

But yes, at least we have some wonderful intellectual toys to play with.

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But yes, at least we have some wonderful intellectual toys to play with.

Very much so! (And I don't think he minds being played with at all...!) ;-D

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It's the joy of intelligence and imagination put together.

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Que tal se van d'amor gaban;
Nos n'avem la pess' e.l coutel.
("Some go about bragging about love;
We have the bread and knife [all we need] of it.")

Guilhem IX of Aquitaine

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duncanmac.livejournal.com

Let's hear it for intellectual toys!

In a similar light, I am working on a new computer programming language, which I mention in my latest post. The language may be artificial, but the utility is still pretty real. :-)

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You know I approve of artificial languages. And in a very real sense, all language is artificial, in that it is created/invented by those who use it, though done so as a collective creation over which no individual has much control. Fascinating.

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duncanmac.livejournal.com

Having seen the same sort of thing in both Canada *and* England, I would have to agree ... but I do not like it -- not even one little bit.

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