"No Useful Work" is quite enlightening

Rabindranath Tagore's "The Man Had No Useful Work" speaks about an overly efficient community where the residents are concerned only with their busy work. A man who has no "useful" job to do finds a busy woman carrying a pitcher. He wants for the woman to lend him her pitcher. She declines, and he persists. After several days of this, she finally gives in. He then draws patterns and lines all over it. The girl goes home and ponders the meaning of the artwork. She comes back the next day demanding to know what need there is for it. He assures her that there is none. She is confused, seeing as this is the first time she has encountered something without underlying meaning. He then weave ribbon into her hair, simply for the enjoyment. The elders of the community are unhappy with this new business. They send the man back to where he came from, and now the girl wants to join him.

Tagore addresses a problem that most societies face. There s busy work everywhere, but so few open minds and creativity in the world anymore that, when one comes upon it, we barely recognize the genius there. Not everything has to happen for the sake of something else. If you were to live that way, is there any end in sight? There is no enjoyment in that life, no appreciation or beauty. This sound like the question asked at the beginning of the course. Why do we take Humanities? We should learn to appreciate the beauty in the world so that we can be well-rounded human beings. The individuals in this specific community are not well-rounded. While they may be good at their craft, they have nothing else to fall back on. When someone shows up who may upset the calm, they feel intimidated. In this case, they force the people who are different out of their community.

Though it is the elders who have chosen to force out the man, the girl goes of her own accord. This goes to show that once shown other options, not everyone will choose a certain life. I understand this girls point of view, growing up to math and science classes. Then when I tried theatre, it changed my whole way of thinking. I now live for enjoyment along with the needs of society, instead of missing out on so much.