Wednesday, April 29, 2009

quote for the day

Creating a life that reflects your values and satisfies your soul is a rare achievement. In a culture that relentlessly promotes avarice and excess as the good life, a person happy doing his own work is usually considered an eccentric, if not a subversive. Ambition is only understood if it's to rise to the top of some imaginary ladder of success. Someone who takes an undemanding job because it affords him the time to pursue other interests and activities is considered a flake. A person who abandons a career in order to stay home and raise children is considered not to be living up to his potential-as if a job title and salary are the sole measure of human worth.
You'll be told in a hundred ways, some subtle and some not, to keep climbing, and never be satisfied with where you are, who you are, and what you're doing. There are a million ways to sell yourself out, and I guarantee you'll hear about them.
From a graduation speech given by Bill Watterson in 1990.

4 comments:

Pryme said...

Wow. I like that.

100 Farmers said...

There's a point though where "refusing to play the game" leads to stagnation.

daveawayfromhome said...

I thinks it less a matter of "refusing" to play the game, and more one of not taking it so damned seriously.
Most of all though, to thine own self be true, and remember, just because you can make more money doing it doesnt mean you should.

100 Farmers said...

Being true to thine own self is sometimes a convenient excuse for a fear of trying. Works only when you have only yourself to consider also.