Voltaire – Why we work…wonder and worry

The question does occur from time to time, “Why work?”  

Why do we sometimes do as King Solomon observed: they labor and toil…., 

commenting on the human condition, the lot of many.    

The obvious, basic answer is: survival.  

On this...,Voltaire writes:  

Our labor preserves us from three great evils -- weariness, vice and want. 

Another possibility is that trouble is lessened by our labor, our work, because it:  

• Preoccupies, avoiding all that presumed idle time
• Exhaust, physical and maybe mentally, much
• Satisfies, a sense of purpose and need

As to the lot of many (the human condition), Voltaire describes it in part this way:

Each player must accept the cards life deals him or her; but once they are in hand, he or she alone must decide how to play the cards in order to win the game.

Is this is so?  Are we each dealt some certain hand of which, through decision, work with what we have whatever it is (or was)?  

It seems complex, this dealing...for on any path we take there is decision, right? 

Is life all cause & effect; that if we make “good decisions” we get good, acceptable or appreciated results. 

All things considered—and even the unconsidered—this journey of life cannot be entirely explained, why things happen (or happened) as they did or do. 

With most work at one time or another, we wonder and worry about what is happening, happened or may happen.   Our work seldom gratifies us for long and sometimes leaves us wanting, full of worry and wonder.