You Are Not Your Paycheck

On Sunday afternoon, Rockies outfielder Ian Desmond announced he will be opting out of the 2021 season (for now) to spend more time with his family and on his passion to grow baseball into underserved communities in his home state of Florida.

The announcement comes after Desmond opted out of the 2020 season entirely for mostly the same reasons (his wife had their fifth child during the summer, plus he was inspired by the Black Lives Matter protests that erupted nationwide). Desmond’s career numbers with the Rockies aren’t entirely relevant anymore for a moment like this, except if it comes as a retrospective and Desi never takes another AB for the team. Desmond has given up over 20 million dollars to both spend time with those he loves most and attempt to make a positive impact in his community, both are honorable things, the move all but requires respect.

Unfortunately, for some, Ian Desmond is not anything more than a baseball player. For some, the act of choosing your life over your work is something that is offensive. Ian Desmond to these people, like most athletes, is nothing more than entertainment value. Or, perhaps, Ian has offended them because he’s shown them something they wish wasn’t true. Ian has shown them that you are not your job, you are not your paycheck.

The phrase comes from the novel and film Fight Club, the anarchist fantasy that you can be freed by reclaiming your primal masculinity. I don’t agree with the story’s themes in the slightest, but the phrase that you are greater than the money you earn has always been at the core of my adult ethos and is especially relevant in this moment.

Refraining from diving too deeply into my economic beliefs and the 19th century beardo I derive them from, the belief that you are not your paycheck is a freeing one. The majority of, if not all of, American education is about “preparing you for the workforce” and assigning an identity to the studies you pursue and the work you desire. Most people do not land in their preferred or first choice of work, most people land in a bunch of jobs some economists have labeled “bullshit jobs”, jobs for busy work that keep an economy that no longer builds things afloat. Ian Desmond is not in a “bullshit job” by the definition they provide (sports provide as much value as the arts), but Ian sees things far greater than the entertainment he provides on the field. Ian, like we all should, sees the impact he can make at home as the largest impact he can make and the largest legacy he can leave behind. His identity is more than the job he has, like all of us. But Ian recognizing that has offended some, maybe for the fact he recognized it at all?

The film It’s A Wonderful Life also feels prescient, though for me it always seems to. In the movie, if you haven’t seen it, the titular character George Bailey learns through angelic intervention that success is built not on the money you earn or the places you go, but in the people you love. George sees himself as a failure because his whole life is being dictated by things he can’t control but as his guardian angel shows him, he has always been in control and has always made the choice that helps people. When George is removed from the timeline things don’t get better like he believes because George’s impact is far greater than the company he runs or the house he owns.

Frank Capra’s film is probably my favorite Christmas movie and one of my five favorite movies of all time for many reasons, but mostly for this one. Capra doesn’t leave it to metaphors and subtext when he shows that family and friends are the true measure of success. He even has Clarence write it in the Tom Sawyer novel he gives to George at the end of the film. No man is a failure who has friends. George spent his whole life frustrated that he couldn’t go to college or be a war hero or start a company in London, but what he did was far greater than any of that. It’s why it’s impossible not to cry when Harry Bailey toasts to his brother as “the richest man in town”.

I don’t mean to paint with a broad brush on Ian’s critics. Many likely don’t view their job as their identity (or have a career they truly feel makes an impact), but too often in this country people are driven only by success in a career that will ultimately lead them to leaving nothing of value behind. Even beyond the CEO “success win” types that have overwhelmed LinkedIn and Instagram timelines, we have all met the middle manager that only sees their value in their work. This is true across any industry or any city. Sure, these people may own RVs or beach side condos to push the idea that they view life as more than work but how often are those simply trophies for what they believe is true success?

You ARE more than your paycheck. You ARE more than your possessions. Not because we are all flesh, blood, and masculinity. But because when you eventually depart from the mortal coil, what you leave behind first and foremost is the love you gave.

Ian Desmond chose to be greater than the money he earned, even giving that money up to do so. To have any other feeling outside of “good for him” is to give away what you believe professional athletes are, cyborgs for your entertainment, entertainers with no right to have feelings. Beyond that, it gives away what you believe success is and what you believe life is for.

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