Is it just me, or does it happen to you too to have these days in which everything seems to revolve around the same theme, like in a sit-com? The theme of the day for me today was office angst.
Granted, I am sensitive to this particular theme in this period, but still, it feels like it was looking for me.
It started this morning, when I checked out Boing Boing. Xeni Jardin had published this list of Zen flash animations (originally from chaos kitty) and I watched the beautiful British I’m a creep, which I highly recommend (warning: the site is called “Low morale: a series of animations portraying one’s man struggle with working life,” so don’t expect anything uplifting). On the same list, the thematically related and interesting Not my type.
This afternoon, Scott and I went to see Spirit: The Seventh Fire at Fairmont Park. The synopsis:
Spirit – The Seventh Fire tells the dramatic story of one man’s journey to find a balance between the culture in which he exists, driven by the “American Dream,” and his roots, rich in heritage, tradition and connected to the natural world.
And again, the office cubicle was the metaphorical representation of the “American Dream” as well as of the disconnection between our day to day life and our deep needs and longings.
I’ve always thought that one of the biggest failures of corporate America is to have created a work environment where people feel alienated, pressured to the point of rupture, and out of place. True, not everybody feels that way; but judging from the people I know, the number of people who feel their corporate job is just a temporary pact with the devil is just too high to consider the office a healthy and happiness-promoting work environment.