Musonius Rufus, Lectures 11.8

What is there to prevent a student while he is working from listening to a teacher speaking about self-control or justice or endurance?

For those who teach philosophy well do not need many words, nor is there any need that pupils should try to master all this current mass of precepts on which we see our Sophists pride themselves; they are enough to consume a whole lifetime.

But the most necessary and useful things it is not impossible for men to learn in addition to their farm work, especially if they are not kept at work constantly but have periods of rest.

When I first read this passage, I had to laugh out loud, because I suddenly saw that the best lessons I have ever learned came to me while I was working, or in those brief times where I was taking a break from working.

And by working, mind you, I do mean actually working. I don’t mean being nailed to a desk and looking busy, or filling out useless paperwork, or pointing fingers to tell other people what to do, or charging someone a ridiculous amount of money while sitting on the can and thinking about his case file.

I also don’t mean working in the sense of acting for the sake of any additional profit. “If you just work hard enough, you’ll be rich!” Shouldn’t it be enough to say that I will work hard to be the best version of myself?

Decent folks I worked with taught me right from wrong, both by their words and by their examples. I usually dozed off during the meetings, when the bosses threw their weight around, but I was always attentive when those in the know showed me how the world actually played itself out. They understood about that, precisely because they had lived it through.

There have always been Sophists in this world, and there always will be. They are deeply worried about the image, and not at all about the reality. In our day and age, they speak about advertising, and brand loyalty, and clever five-year plans to sell the product.

Pay the Sophists no heed, and treat them just like Socrates did.

Manual labor is not a detriment to the life of the mind, but it can rather become a means for greater virtue. You could sell a stock to some rich sucker and say you have succeeded, or you could carve a spoon from wood and have something to help you eat your soup. At least you were honest when it came to the spoon.

If I really care about right and wrong, what Musonius calls farm work can do me quite a bit of right, and it will hardly steer me wrong.

Watch people of character do their menial jobs, and then emulate them. Listen to people of character while they perform their humble tasks, and then take their suggestions to heart.

Written in 11/1999