I no longer work for the man.
It has taken me sixty-six years, 
     but I have freed myself from the chains of economic bondage.
I have cast my lot on the sea of fate 
     and let it pull me out into depths of self-actualization. 
I am ready to finally take charge of my own life. 
I have retired from the race of working men.

As a young man, I entered the work force with two major vulnerabilities that made me ripe for exploitation.  I can trace the genesis of each to my first years of religion classes with Dr. Webb Pomeroy at Centenary College of Louisiana, back in the early 1970’s.  His Old Testament classes—full of mysticism, retribution, and violence—made a big impact on the mind of a naïve boy from rural New York State. 

The late 60’s and early 70’s were turbulent times for religion in the United States.

• On January 9, 1966 the NY Times declared that “God is Dead,” the same year The Good News Bible was first published.
• In 1969, Anton Szander LaVey published the Satanic Bible, but at the same time the “Jesus Freak” movement was turning many hippies into evangelical Christians.
• From the late 60’s on I had a deep and abiding interest in, and have researched extensively, the occult and witchcraft, but In 1972, I bought my first copy of the Tao Te Ching and the Inner Chapters of Chuang Tsu.

All these influences affected me, not only spiritually, but pragmatically in the workplace.  However, the two greatest influences, and the ones that have affected my work life, are specifically Judeo-Christian.  Those are the concepts of salvation and the suffering servant.

Salvation

Not by grace, but by works.  Even though Protestants hold fast to the belief that they are saved by grace through faith alone, the flip side is that faith without works is dead.  Throughout my working life I held fast to the notion that just as the Bible tells us that we are saved by grace that inspires works (or grace acheived by works), and since God works in all his children for the benefit of those who believe, I thought that just as Jesus had the Father to lead him to success in his career, I would have an advocate to lead me to success in my career.

The suffering servant

The suffering servant from the Book of Isaiah is a concept I, at least, interpreted to mean someone who, for the sake of righteousness suffers through any number of faults, setbacks, and trials with the idea of a reward at the end.  Depending upon the source, the suffering servant could refer to the Christ or the nation of Israel as a whole.  In my case it would serve as a role model for my working life.  I thought that if I worked long enough and hard enough and endured whatever the situation demanded, in the end I would be rewarded.

As a writer, I tend to live more on the academic side of things.  I also tend to see things with a broader lens and am not so much concerned with the now, as I am with what might happen next.  It’s easy to see that in terms of the world, especially the working world, the concepts both of salvation and the suffering servant are unrealistic the point of foolishness.  They demand a basic belief in the decency of people, especially mangers.  They also require that employment, whether by the state or private corporations, exists for the purpose of building up their workers rather than exploiting them.

I could go on for pages about the sins of capitalism, of greed, of the cruel insensitivity of humanity, but it would serve no purpose.  Let it suffice to say that I am now free of those chains and have only myself to rely on from here on out, at least in terms of my professional goals. 

From now on I will focus on writing novels, poems, and blogging—with a little Santa Claus on the side.  The novel I am currently working on, I hope publish in December.  We’ll see how that goes.  Until then, if you are still working for the man, best of luck to you.  If, like me you have freed yourself of the yoke and chain, perhaps I’ll see you at the pub.  Until then, “Thanks for the fish”.

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©2020 Kevin Fraleigh