Bar Work and Existentialism (or: Today Work Was Really, Really Quiet)

When I'm not working as a musician up in Scotland I'm down in the Lake District, in the little village of Ambleside, working as a barman (hence the blog title). I've been working in various bars since I was old enough to work in them and as stressful and exhausting as bar work can be, it's genuinely work I enjoy doing; you're constantly busy, you get to talk to a wide variety of different people and there's an element of performance about the whole thing which can be quite fun sometimes.

With shifts generally being quieter, I've been getting to know the people I work with. There's a consistent theme with all the staff, including the chef and supervisors, and it's that we're all moving towards a goal, we all want to do something else, and we all think we'll get there.

To turn this into an academic thing: if you want to learn what existentialism is, work in a bar.

(note: I'm about to talk about existentialism, and while I feel that what I'm talking about is right there's also a large part of me thinking that I'm probably wrong about all of it, if I've got myself mixed up, please let me know)

Existentialism is all about purpose, or rather a lack of one. People are free to be whoever they want to be. It sounds fairly straightforward right? I assure you it's not. I thought I had it worked out and told myself 'I've found a purpose, I'm a musician' and thought from an existential perspective I was doing okay.

I. Was. Wrong.

According to existentialism, that's wrong. If we think we've found a purpose, we're not living existential-y (?) anymore, we've become a 'thing'. A thing is something created with a purpose, like a cup or a pencil. In his book 'Being and Nothingness' (optimistic title) Jean Paul Satre used the example of a waiter. This particular waiter has decided that he is only a waiter, and to Satre, this is bad, or as he puts it: 'bad faith'. There's a really good video about it here.

To bring this back to my point about working in a bar: nobody in the bar is living in 'bad faith'. Yes they're working in a bar, but it doesn't define them. The chef is saving up money so they can live and become a fireman, one of the staff is taking a year out before going into teaching. Nobody believes themselves to be essentially a waiter, everyone there has hopes and ambitions. We're all working towards the same thing, but at the same time different things.

It's motivating, being amongst people who are of the same mindset, especially in a work environment. The chef had his way of putting it that's stuck with me.

'For now we must survive, then we can be free'

(I should stress our chef is Polish, and quite dramatic)

I'm heading up to Glasgow next weekend to work on a film, doubtless the train journey will bring up some thoughts worth writing about.

Until next time

Devsky

My albums this week:

I Love You, Go Easy by Devon Sproule

Live at Real World by The Drummers of Burundi

Kaleidoscope  by Reely Jiggered