October 15, 2008
“crofting” as a metaphor for the new world of work?
Recently I wrote about “crofting”, which has always had a big influence on my life.
My paternal grandfather was a Scottish Highland “crofter”. He lived on a “croft” i.e. a very small holding of land, where he raised sheep and grew potatoes. I used to spend my summers there as a boy. We were very close.
Crofting is a good life, but not a very financially rewarding one. It’s very self-sufficient, though. The interesting thing for me looking back, is that crofters never did “just one thing”. Every day they had something else going on. One day it might be sheep. The next it might be a job working on the roads for the local council. I knew one crofter who drove the mail van. Another who ran the local post office. They would do their jobs, but after work they’d still have their sheep, cows and potatoes to attend to.
As my dad is fond of reminding me, I seem to have inherited the crofting mentality. I DON’T like waking up in the morning and doing the same thing every day. I LIKE having all these different balls in the air– cartooning, painting, consulting, writing, marketing, blogging etc. Sure, part of me would like nothing better than just “retiring to the desert and making paintings”, but another part of me likes all the running around in different directions. And all this running around DOES get tiring, I can tell you that. Sometimes I LOVE the feeling of being constantly overwhelmed. Other times I utterly despise it.
Since that post I’ve gotten more than a few emails, with people basically saying, “Thank you for coming up with a term that totally describes my life!“
The traditional Highland crofter is quickly becoming a thing of the past. As my uncle, a crofter like his father before him, recently quipped, “We just farm manila envelopes now” [Rural subsidies from the European bureaucrats tend to arrive in manila envelopes]. But as the BigCorp job-for-life also becomes more and more a thing of the past, expect to see more “Crofters” out there, even if like me, it’s no longer sheep and potatoes we’re selling. I think it’s a sweet little term that conveys a lot, especially to those of us who seem to have a built-in aversion to salaried positions in other people’s companies. You?
[Bonus Link: Probably the most well-known book on Scottish crofting. “The Crofter & The Laird” by John McPhee.]
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A wee chuckle to start your day off right etc.
Lovely term to me as well. I want to be a Crafting Crofter one day. Or is that a Crofting Crafter? Hee.
crofting indeed describes my pursuits and passion for daily life. thank you for giving me a term for this lifestyle of many hats.
OMG Yes! I used to think that by learning a great deal I would become much more marketable, and in effect, more attractive to potential employers. Now, I’m just crofting my little empire.
Now we call it ‘multiple streams of income’, and it’s a darn good idea. That way when catastrophe strikes in one area of your life you are not doomed.
Crofting is a fine term, and as a Scot of course I connect with it, but I think a more accurate but less poetic term might be ‘portfolio worker, or perhaps ‘parallel artisan’.
Yes, most definitely! As a recovering lawyer (as in “I don’t do that anymore”) and a full time artist (and Scottish heritage on both sides), I’m there.
As a recovering lawyer (as in “I don’t do that anymore) and a full time artist (and Scots heritage on both sides), I can definitely say “Yes”!
Hugh
– love it… in spite of the multi-task complexity, crofting has a sense of a simpler life, and of having choice & control over the day’s agenda — even if when there’s 100 & 1 things to do, all appears chaotic & maybe pressured.
It’s my choice of pressure, so I hardly notice.
Will
ancestral croft on Isle of Skye
and just like in the good old days we are all out here on our little webcrofts, doing our many things and visiting our friends over on their little webcrofts…
Yes this is much better term than portfolio career!
Crofting.
Lovely Hugh — how most of us live on PEI — I could never go back my family also came from that — mu from the Orkney and my dad from Ayrshire
Rob
Air travel has become a major part of our society, with industries and individuals depending on air transport for their livelihood. But have you ever wondered what happens to the artifacts of our airborne culture when they’re no longer needed? [url=http://weburbanist.com/2008/10/14/abandoned-airfields-airports-aircraft-airplanes/]More..[/url]
xrtst303a
Crofting it is! As a professional artist, my work habits are supposed to be as follows: 7am, wake up, make coffee, scroll through emails & Reader. 9am, head to studio, and paint till 6pm, with a 2 hour break for lunch or a gallery meeting. Sleep, repeat, for years on end.
But what if I don’t want to be doing the same thing every day? What if staying in one small orbit — home to studio to gallery — isn’t enough?
Next week I’m headed to Italy to check out some studio space. Next month I’m going to be in an arts festival in Vietnam and will be giving interviews & writing up what other artists are doing. This winter I’ll be researching a book on handmade paper of SE Asia — considered a distraction from “serious art-making” by gallerists.
The days of one job for life (or one city or studio for life) are numbered.
‘Sure, part of me would like nothing better than just “retiring to the desert and making paintings”, but another part of me likes all the running around in different directions.‘
I can definitely relate to this.
Hugh, this idea is potentially expansive enough to be the next book. not that you need another project, obviously. but I think a “Crofter’s Guide to Life” or “The Way of the Crofter” or “Cybercroft” would have an enormous impact in the worlds of practicing and wannabee crofters.
(and yes, you just described my life, as I’m building it. just add me to the list.)
I really your thoughts on crofting (as well as Smarter Wine coversations last year). I work in wine too, and you say a lot of things that I like about living and talking to people in ways that surprise even ourselves.
I’m in the Salaried world, and admit that I like it. For the past year I’ve been blogging as part of my my feudal contract. I’ve found that it’s a way for me to get some of the joys of crofting within my world. I’m lucky — my blog is an extension of my “day job” and few in the company really understand it. So I’m able to invent, explore, experiment in what feels like art to me.
Just right for a corporate slave with a creative compulsion!
Barbara Sher wrote a great book a few years ago called “Refuse to Choose.” She calls people like us “Scanners” (let’s hope our heads don’t explode!) because we are always scanning for new opportunities and the next thing.
Write now I’m on her LTTL program of career management:
Learn
Try
Teach
Leave.
Guess which phase I’m on? (Shhh, it’s a secret!)
I think ‘crofting’ comes naturally to creative people.….
Thank you for introducing me to this term.
And a book to go with it!
I’m with Deborah Paris — a recovering accountant, don’t practice anymore (though never say never), got too dull, decided to try crofting instead. So now buy properties, and do some internet marketing. My dad is a Scot, going to ask him tonight whether he comes from a long line of crofters!