rooting for me from the very beginning.
As you strive to achieve your life’s work, be careful of at
what costs you chase it. It will be easy to resent those closest
to you, to make your biggest supporters into your worst
enemies. To hoard your work away from the rest of life.
You may be tempted to see every relationship not as a
lifeline, but as a competing force, something to be
mistrusted. And in doing this, you may destroy the very
things that could save you.
Consumed by the Calling
I often wonder about my grandfather, who was a journalist,
artist, and alcoholic for much of his life. A talented pianist
and playwright, Grandpa was a man I admired—a deep
thinker, a complex character full of frustration and
sometimes unexplained sadness. There is much about that
man that is still a mystery. But one thing I do know is that
surrounded by the books he loved, with eyes full of regret,
he died at the hands of his addiction. Jaundiced and glassy-
eyed, staring at me with a softness I will never forget, he
gripped my hand and smiled. A few days later, his major
organs completely shut down, and he was gone.
I have no doubt that my grandfather was called to be an
artist. But I also know that for a season of life he let his
calling consume him. So whenever I snap at my wife or lose
patience with my son, I try to remember this and that