Life and Work

Note posted on my office doors

Life and Work Theory vs Practice and a Never-Ending Process

For all of us, life and work are inextricably interwoven and intertwined, with often unforeseen but always interesting consequences.

This self-composed text (not sure it qualifies as a bona fide poem) has been posted on the doors of all offices I have occupied in multiple countries on several continents, and presently on offices doors in Kristiansand, Norway and Sofia, Bulgaria. It is a reminder that life (or practice) and work (or theory) (or is it the other way around?) are closely related, and that building order and preventing chaos, and not the least finding a meaning throughout it all, is a never-ending process.

As you may have noticed, this text is available also in the Introduction to this blog. Together with the other text posted there, it speaks perhaps to my view of my own self, and how it possibly has evolved over my personal and professional life.

In retrospect, I wonder if this is a case of me choosing the text, or if it is the text that choses me, and I am sure that my education and practise as an anthropologist (again, it is a question of interpretation whether I chose anthropology or whether it was the other way around) have lots to do with it. In any case, it leaves me contemplating to what extent I subconciously very likely not consciously act and lead my life to live up to the essence of the text.

Lars T Soeftestad


Notes
(1) Image credit: Lars Soeftestad.
(2) Relevant Devblog articles: Welcome (to Devblog) at: https://devblog.no/en
(3) Permalink. URL: https://devblog.no/en/article/life-and-work
(4) This article was published 12 July 2019. It was revised 8 December 2020.

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