Volume 8, Issue 5, page 9
Part 8. CHAP. VI-LOOK BACK WITH PLEASURE
AME NOW the lunch hour, and The Associate was still with you. You
covered the hours from nine
to twelve in a matter of minutes. Usually, the hours dragged
until lunch. Then they dragged
until quitting time at night . You were surprised at what had
happened. You went to the
lunch room . You sat at table with several of your in-the-flesh
associates. They looked
differently, somehow.
"What's with you today, anyway?" asked Peter Low. "I never saw
you so work brickle."
"Work brickle?" you repeated. IsMy grandfather used to say of me
that I was work brickle.
Made me feel good. Made me work harder, too.' He used to pay me
25 cents an hour. Usually I
made a job last more hours than it should have lasted . But when
he said that, I just had to
prove it. Made a kind of sucker out of me by praising me. But why
should you? You're not the
boss."
"Just thought of it, is all," said Peter. "You scarcely looked
around all morning. I did
notice something strange, tho. You allright? Not sick or
anything? , '
"Sure I'm all right. What do you mean am I sick or anything?" You
were almost inclined to
be belligerent a b o u t it , mostly because you knew what was
coming
"Softly, brother!" Jesus seemed io whisper at that spot. "Let the
man have his say. Maybe
you'll learn something."
"You just turned your head aside," the man named Peter went on,
"not to use up time
looking discontentedly around, but as if you were listening to...
to... well, as if you were
listening to something that wasn't there?"
"I was there," you heard yourself saying. but with somewhat less
irritation in your voice
and feeling. "I wasall there!"
"Bragging!" your friend grinned. "But you have something, at
that. You were
for some unusual reason - for a man wh~ finds fault with his
bread and butterall there, on
the job!"
You realized something : You had been all there. Hitherto you
hadn't been, not really.
Your hands, hired, had been there . Your body had been on the job
because it couldn't be
taken away from the paid-for hands. But you hadn't been there!
You'd been at home. fussing
with the wife or being annoyed by the children. Or y;u'd been on
vacation, or fishing, or
hunting. Or you'd been looking at a car you couldn 't af ford to
buy - b e c ause you hadn 't
SEPTEMBER, 1961
With
! 0
e2
scis
gotten that raise in pay! - or you'd just been dreaming while the
paid-for hands did the work
you really didn't enjoy in the least.
But looking back now, with pleasure, you discovered something
with deep satisfaction. It
had been a busy morning so that the time had really gotten up and
got. And why?
"You wholly participated," you said to yourself, careful notto
say it aloud lest your
fellows think you were not all there . "You exploited every
second:- and Jesus was
participating now, you realized, sort of helping you to nail down
your selftalking to. "You
took part w i t h body , mind, and spirit. Your three special
bodies - your own Trinity-
worked in unison. Your mind aided your hands to be more
efficient. Your spirit stayed on the
job instead of wandering off to look at cars, fish, or e 1 k .
You got a lot --more done,
too. "
"I became ashamed of myself, having so much time to watch you,"
said Peter Low. "So I
watched you some more, then got busy myself, and first time I
realized, it was time for
grubpile. The morning never went so fast, all because you were
work brickle. Do you suppose,
chum, that if we did that every morning . . . "
"And afternoon?" said George Hall, aghast. "Why, the afternoon is
for getting set to get
up and get home. Usually, the afternoon is the longest time of
the day. "
"Can we find a better excuse for working harder?" asked Peter Low.
"To make the time pass faster, or to earn your salary?" It was as
if The Associate spoke,
but nobody heard Him, except you, so you said it, sort of careful
not to make it sound like
preaching.
The others stared at you.
"You are sick," said Peter Low. "Leastwise, you're different. If
you stick to it... , I
#4 He willi" you heard The Associate whisper in your ear.
"I shall, hereafter!" you heard yourself committing yourself.
"Let's don't cut our wrists and sign an oath of blood
brotherhoodi dedicated to the
job,"said another associate sourly. "Me, I'm quitting, as soon as
I can find something
better."
"Hanging onto this job, for no better reason than to draw money
until you can draw money
somewhere else? " The Associate was saying that, as you might
have, if He hadn't said it
first.
The disgruntled one turned to you,
The ABERREE
