I was really thinking more about what all of us would do without the people willing to work in professions/trades/services which require continuity. Without growers of food there’d be nothing in the grocery store, if there were not employees to stock or man the store, where would you get bread at 10:00 pm, riding the round the clock bus to get there, or driving, making a stop at the gas station when you noticed the fuel gauge reading empty, maybe once home you burned yourself on the toaster using the just purchased bread and needed medical attention, reaching an emergency phone operator, who dispatches an ambulance driver to take you to the hospital and be treated by a multitude of staff members.

All those people with regular full-time jobs you’d be in contact with, and maybe in great need of, in a one hour span only. It’s difficult to judge full-time work as something not protective, when I can see I’d not be living in any way close to what I might desire or need without the greater majority being 9-5 folks, no matter how much I could simplify my life, use less or less service. I’d hate to think some of these services, and therefore jobs and people doing them, did not exist, nor can I diminish their significance in number alone.

Then there’s the other side. For those on the road less traveled, artist/entrepenuer, for example, do you think all the people purchasing his art are also entrepenurial, or some buyers part of the full-time work world? So the consumer of the products and services of these ventures besides a full-time work member. Think about an art gallery. Who puts up the art? Who advertised the showing? Who provides the security? Who cleaned the floors? That is more the type of protection I am refering to in a big picture way. The majority creates this container, an outer boundary, so those on an alternate track can do what they do. Unless the artist doesn’t need someplace to show his art that’s for sale or eat…

There is of course the real exception. A one in a million person, completely self-sufficient, no need of anything at anytime for any reason from anyone. If there even is one in every million.

Yes, fulltime work can set a boundary.

It is a bit like vaccination and “herd immunity” in that respect.

Evan, I also liked the idea about a feedback envelope. Small businesses really do struggle to get feedback in the way a doctor’s consultancy or a car dealership (to think of 2 relatable examples) do.

I really like your thought about full time work as protection – I hadn’t thought of this. Thanks for your comment.

The less than reverent side of me just couldn’t resist giving you her answer. I think it was only the combination of full time work with part time work and other energizer bunny activity to fill in all other waking hours and maybe even past waking hours, that kept this same part of me out of major trouble, you know jail or gutters somewhere!

Now, however, I’ve taken the time, some of the time forced on me, to look at all the questions you’ve asked with a much more serious attitude. I do have a variety of responses, some from the reflection, some from actual experience, some from what I actually wanted and didn’t have. Too long to tell you half of them here!

Instead, my overall answer, as of today is: Fulltime work, I believe is, and will continue to be, a necessary boundary and definition for many people, not outer imposed, but what an indivual may really need, possibly know they need, possibly not. They may even be the people creating an outer circle and perimeter of protection for those others that are drawn to make much different choices in order to make a living and in turn make living work for them and others.

Possibly both groups giving equally? I guess the trick is to know where one feels they belong. Sometimes shifting from one to another, or choosing exclusively one or the other?

Barbara