We may not often give thought to the implications of this move from an economy which produces physical goods to an economy of, for lack of a better word, “knowledge workers”, where work has been abstracted from the physical realm to the metaphysical realm.  William Barrett, writing in his excellent book Irrational Man: A Study in Existential Philosophy, offers a very insightful take on this abstraction:

Every step forward in mechanical technique is a step in the direction of abstraction. This capacity for living easily and familiarly at an extraordinary level of abstraction is the source of modern man’s power… But it is also a power which has, like everything human, its negative side, in the desolating sense of rootlessness, vacuity, and the lack of concrete feeling that assails modern man in his moments of real anxiety.

I am no scholar, but speaking from my own experience, even as a believer, I can relate to the feelings of rootlessness and vacuity that Barrett describes.  There have been countless times, sitting on an LIRR train at 10:00 at night, an hour from home, after a long day of under-the-gun programming, where I asked myself what I really accomplished, what did I produce?  It was as though some latent desire or need was gnawing at me from the inside: the desire to create.  I didn’t understand it then, but I understand it now, illuminated by Bruce Hegeman’s Plowing In Hope: Toward a Christian Theology Of Culture:

Culture is an essential outworking of mankind’s unique place within God’s creation as image-bearer of God.  Man’s cultural activities grow out of his special relationship to the earth (adamladamath) to work and keep it.  Man is commanded to utilize his innate skills to develop the potentialities “hidden” in the earth waiting to be discovered and realized.

I am not disparaging any job; indeed, I work with computers all day, and I run a publishing company and a number of websites on the side.  However,  I have found that the antidote to the feeling of rootlesness that Barrett described is to shut off the computer and the TV, put on some boots, and go into the garden and get dirty.  Play with my kids outside.  Enjoy the creation and try to improve it any way possible.  I am still learning how to work this out in my life, but I think as children of God we should be aware of the subtle power that the abstraction of work can have on our soul, and, as much as possible, get outside and build something concrete.