The Beat-making Shoemaker
The Beat-making Shoemaker
On making unenjoyable tasks enjoyable
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Dear Bolu,
As I stand to write this letter, I am distracted by a travelling rhythm in the distance. I know its maker. I know him too well. I am used to his beats, but today's beat is different. And it has taken me by surprise. It is rousing in an unexpected way, and I couldn't be more thrilled.
The beat-maker is a shoemaker. Well, he's not a shoemaker in the correct sense of the word, which is a maker of shoes. He is, instead, a shoe-mender or a cobbler. However, if you've lived long enough around these parts, it is practically useless—dare I say unhelpful and disadvantageous—to make a distinction between a shoemaker and a cobbler. That's because the cobbler himself doesn't know he's a cobbler. He thinks he's a shoemaker, and he expects you to recognize him as such.
So if you try to contact him while he's hawking his services in your neighbourhood by calling out to him, "Cobbler! Cobbler!", he may not pay you any attention. Even if he looks your way, he's probably simply curious to see the barbarian screaming this foreign word over and over again. He'd only approach you if you beckon him to come over or if he looks around and realizes that he's the only one you could possibly be hailing. And he'd whisper to himself, "you could've just said, Shoemaker! Shoemaker!". Oh, well. There are some things to be said here about how communication is often at the mercy of ignorance rather than the rightness of vocabulary. But I will dwell on them some other time if my memory allows me. For now, I'll focus on the beat-making Shoemaker.
Shoemakers go around with a wooden box that has a metallic handle. It's neither the biggest nor the smallest box you'll ever see, but it's sizeable enough to contain their work tools. They make beats with this box either by hitting it with a hard object or playing with the handle in a hardly imaginable way. Beat-making does the job of advertising their services—just as the ice-cream truck plays certain melodies to catch the ears of little kids. And it works.
You know the shoemaker is on the street when you hear him beat his box. You can always tell. So I knew this was a shoemaker, but I was astonished by how wonderful his beats were. Although he was a solo drummer, it seemed as though he was playing for a band. I couldn’t help but rush to the nearest window in an attempt to put a face to this beat-maker. There he was, walking casually down the street, completely oblivious of the fact that he was delivering the single greatest beat-making performance by a shoemaker. I was a bit annoyed that he was unceremonious about it, but I could understand. He wasn’t doing it for anyone, so there was no need to be overly animated. You could tell from the beat that he was enjoying himself, and it was lovely to see and hear. I was perhaps his only audience, but it sufficed to give him a moment in the sun, literally and otherwise.
Oh well.
You may be stuck doing a job you detest because you have no reasonable alternative. It could be a bank job, and the only numbers you’re genuinely interested in are neck and bust sizes, not interest rates and book balances. So you say to yourself, “I’d like to work in a fashion house because I enjoy designing clothes”. Other things being equal, given the option to choose between a career path that interests you (fashion designing) and one that doesn’t (banking), the choice is obvious. It’s classic utilitarianism—simply maximize pleasure. And that’s fine. You should, however, know that there are aspects of both jobs or career paths that you wouldn’t enjoy. Yes, you’d rather do a job you enjoy, but even those have certain unenjoyable elements.
Your role as a designer may require you to focus more on making dresses than drawing/making sketches of dresses. You may dislike the former and enjoy only the latter, but you’ve got to do what the job dictates. And that means doing a task you don’t enjoy. Of course, this is better than the bank job because you naturally enjoy some aspects, at least, but you’re still doing tasks you don’t enjoy. Similarly, the musician who loves the comfort of the studio may dislike live performances and tours. The writer who is gifted with the pen may not enjoy book launches. The footballer who is skilled with the ball may hate cone exercises. The software developer who loves building web applications may shirk from code documentation. The Shoemaker who loves mending (yes, yes, it should be “making”, not “mending”) shoes may detest spending hours under the sun in search of customers. And so forth.
Although there are unenjoyable aspects of your job, you needn’t go about doing them with an air of miserableness. You needn’t be that pitiable soul in the corner moping because you’ve been asked to shred a pile of documents or the visibly unhappy officer on duty sulking because you’re stuck with paperwork as opposed to fieldwork. It is tempting to think that you’d completely enjoy certain roles because you love them, but that’s not always the reality. And although I’ve used jobs to make the point, this applies to other activities—hiking, camping, cooking, jogging, and partying all have unenjoyable aspects. But like the Shoemaker, you can try to make the unenjoyable aspects a bit enjoyable or at least more tolerable. Of course, it needn’t involve making great beats with a wooden box. It could simply be performing the task with a friend or colleague, plugging into your favourite podcast, or anything else.
Ah, I had hoped to write on a different subject entirely, but I was tempted by the inspiration from the beat-making Shoemaker. I’m glad I yielded. Though he’d never know our names and we’d never know his, a word has been written about him. A word has been read about him. And a lesson has been learnt from him, dear friend.
Fin.
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Write you soon, merci!
- Wolemercy