We Need An Art

Now, we are as imaginatively disconnected

from the production and distribution of our goods

as we are practically in reach of them.

A process of alienation which

has stripped us of opportunities

for wonder,

     gratitude

          and guilt.

Work accords each of us a place

within the human hive.

We need an art

that can proclaim

the intelligence

     peculiarity

          beauty

               and horror

of the modern work place.

Work provides us

along with love

with the principal source of life's meaning.

---Alain de Botton

taken from THE PLEASURES AND SORROWS OF WORK

I found this passage recently and cannot get it out of my mind.  Yes, work is so critical to life, that it merits celebration in the arts.  Perhaps Bruce Springsteen and John Mellencamp have done as much as any performer to tell the truth about the meaning of work.