If a person can do that, they are richer than any billionaire, more
powerful than any sovereign.
Yet instead of seizing this path to power, we choose ingratitude
and the insecurity of needing more, more, more. “We are here as if
immersed in water head and shoulders underneath the great
oceans,” said the Zen master Gensha, “and yet how pitiously we are
extending our hands for water.” We think we need more and don’t
realize we already have so much. We work so hard “for our families”
that we don’t notice the contradiction—that it’s because of work that
we never see them.
Enough.
Now, there is a perfectly understandable worry that contentment
will be the end of our careers—that if we somehow satisfy this urge,
all progress in our work and in our lives will come to a screeching
halt. If everyone felt good, why would they keep trying so hard?
First, it must be pointed out that this worry itself is hardly an ideal
state of mind. No one does their best work driven by anxiety, and no
one should be breeding insecurity in themselves so that they might
keep making things. That is not industry, that is slavery.
We were not put on this planet to be worker bees, compelled to
perform some function over and over again for the cause of the hive
until we die. Nor do we “owe it” to anyone to keep doing, doing,
doing—not our fans, not our followers, not our parents who have
provided so much for us, not even our families. Killing ourselves does
nothing for anybody.
It’s perfectly possible to do and make good work from a good
place. You can be healthy and still and successful.
Joseph Heller believed he had enough, but he still kept writing.
He wrote six novels after Catch-22 (when a reporter criticized him by
saying he hadn’t written anything as good as his first book, Heller
replied, “Who has?”), including a number one bestseller. He taught.
He wrote plays and movies. He was incredibly productive. John
Stuart Mill, after his breakdown, fell in love with poetry, met the
woman who would eventually become his wife, and began to slowly
return to political philosophy—and ultimately had enormous impact
on the world. Indeed, Western democracies are indebted to him for
many changes he helped bring about.
barry
(Barry)
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