You have mentioned several trades that are among the blue-collar elite. I always enjoy talking to whatever tradesmen come to my house, picking their brains a bit, and trying to learn something.
Honestly, I think that one of the lowest aspects of America’s elite culture is its denigration of anyone who works with both his hands and his brain. Looking back, I wish I had gone into tool-and-die making or something similarly rigorous — and rewarding both for the job challenge and the compensation.
My problem started when I scored off the chart on my verbal SATs. I was clearly college material — indeed, my parents and I never even considered me going into a trade because I was a straight-A student who was neither athletic nor dexterous. In other words, a perfect bookworm.
So, to make a long story longer, I wound up spending 25 years as a reporter and editor for various local rags around the South.
And here’s the rub: There was no money in it, the hours were long, and the pressure fairly constant. Yet in all those years, I was never bored and never doubted that such talents as God gave me were being put to good use keeping our readers informed.
And one more thing: Even writing for the Podunk Gazette, I never would have seen interesting things or met interesting people to the same degree in any other profession. As I said, I was never bored — even in zoning hearings.
About midway though the 25 years, I yielded to family pressure and got a presumably well-paid and secure job doing PR work for a government agency. I was gone in just a year — and was never more relieved to lose a job.
So, tell me, FRiends — have I wasted my life? Yes, the world needs plumbers more than Shakespeare scholars. But how does a young man make a living whose only detectable talent is his way with words?
btt
Of course, that man should write.
It's a shame because journalism classes today are filled with people wanting to learn how to look good, and become the next "star" on a news' channel like CNN. They want to be the investigative journalist that forces a President to look bad, forces impeachment talks, or even better, forces them to resign. They're not interested in reporting the news of course; they want to make the news.
If you still write to any degree, you should consider starting a blog--there are many electronic means with which to share information today.
There are more opportunities today than have ever existed before, because of widespread literacy and the Internet.
Having said that, those positions are still a tiny nitch market.
Professional writers?
How many in the United States? I doubt the number reaches 10,000. The atmosphere is pretty rarefied.
Trying to decide which professions are worthier than others is like the parts of the body arguing over which is the most important. It takes all kinds to make a world.
Jesus started out, supposedly, as a carpenter, and abandoned a perfectly good trade in order to enlighten mankind.
> one of the lowest aspects of America’s elite culture is its denigration of anyone who works with both his hands and his brain.
Not all, MIT’s motto is “Mens et Manus,” which translates from the Latin to “Mind and Hand.”