Here’s an appropriate post for a day when I didn’t get much writing done because I had to stay late at the dayjob:<\/p>\n
Fred Gratzon, in Your Calling and The Real World<\/a>, writes:<\/p>\n I see squandering the better part of one\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s day when one is most energetic, most alert, and most creative on some \u00e2\u20ac\u0153tolerable\u00e2\u20ac\u009d job as a tragic waste of one\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s gifts and time. Far better is to identify, develop and enjoy those gifts.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n and<\/p>\n Whenever I seemed to need money, it appeared. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the damnedest thing (or better put, the undamnedest thing) but I have found that it is all a matter of deserving and desiring. If I thought I deserved it then I desired it. And then it came. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve never gone without. It has nothing to do with work or effort or jobs or careers. It seems to do the trick because I live comfortably.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Now, on the one hand, he has a point: Why waste time and energy on something unimportant while the Great American Novel languishes unwritten?<\/p>\n But it’s a bit simplistic. I mean, wow! All I have to do is what I want and my rent will magically pay itself? Sign me up!<\/p>\n I think what Gratzon fails to note in his post (and I’ve only briefly skimmed other parts of his blog), is that he’s lucky. What he wants to do, what he enjoys doing, is something *that earns money*. (I believe he’s started some successful businesses. He said he got out when they weren’t fun anymore.)<\/p>\n Do what you love, and the money will follow — as long as what you love is something society values.<\/p>\n Otherwise, you get a choice: do something “tolerable” to pay the bills while pursuing your dream in your spare time, or starve on the street. Being dead does not make pursuing dreams any easier.<\/p>\n [I suppose I should point out that I did, in fact, once quit something I no longer enjoyed to do something totally different that I do enjoy, and I do make a living at it. So I’m my own counterexample. Though I’d rather have more time to write novels.]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Here’s an appropriate post for a day when I didn’t get much writing done because I had to stay late at the dayjob: Fred Gratzon, in Your Calling and The Real World, writes: I see squandering the better part of … Continue reading