with

I want to share a few thoughts about working and living together.

Many of us have devoted our professional lives to the challenges of people working together to make a difference in the world. If we want to use the Latin word, we can call that the practice of collaboration (to co-labor). Ultimately, collaboration is part of the practice of conviviality – the simple act of living together.

It is difficult to address the matter of work in a holistic fashion, because we have created a cultural divide between work and “life”. What kind of sense does that make? When people use the word “life” this way, they really mean just anything that doesn’t remind them of work, because mostly they don’t like what they think of as work. I see this as a form of denial. We are trying desperately to compartmentalize and cut off a part of our life that we often hate and over which we see ourselves as having no control. This just makes things worse.

Preaching “work/life balance” doesn’t help either. That reinforces the denial and further disempowers us.

What is needed is a reintegration of work into our lives. Yes, this will require different models of work, just as it will require different models of life in general. But it will bring us back to our senses and reconnect us with each other. Chopping vegetables with a partner in the kitchen, while you’re all preparing a meal for your family and neighbors – that is work. That is also life. Together.