Not Everyone Gets to Enjoy the Fruits

"The reward of a thing well done is having done it." —Ralph Waldo Emerson

The housekeeping person could put in hours making sure the room is an absolute delight and yet they’ll never be the one sleeping in it.

The carpenter may have gotten attached to their work after spending hours turning the house around, and yet there will come a time when the house’s status changes from “work in progress” to “welcome home.” A house they spent months or years creating and yet never get to call home.

While their pain might be invisible to us, it’s very real to them.

The pain of pouring yourself into creating something that’ll never be yours. And also of knowing that the crown molding you spent 5 days perfecting will probably not even be noticed by the stayers. The finance guy will be too busy making hard calls to notice something so delicate.

That’s the joke, isn’t it? The people who build beautiful places rarely get to enjoy them. The ones who cook the feast rarely sit at the table.

And yet, these invisible architects of comfort find the will to return to work each day.

The housekeeper smooths the bedspread one final time, erasing any evidence of herself before slipping out the door. Tonight, she’ll go home to sheets that don’t match and a bedroom too small for her dreams.

The carpenter packs his tools while the new owners celebrate with a double frosting cake in the kitchen he built.

The wealthy man sleeps soundly in his custom bed frame without wondering about the hands that crafted it. Meanwhile, the craftsman lies awake, his body aching, calculating how many more kitchen renovations until he can fix his own leaking roof.

But as sad as this asymmetry is, in life it helps always try and look at the brighter side.

They may not own the spaces they create, but they own the ability to transform nothing into something. And most “owners” will never be able to wrap their heads around how that came to be.

Some treasures can’t be bought. And some pains can’t be avoided. Both are part of the same bittersweet bargain we call work.