self reproach

You will never be an artist, a musician, a writer: by all means go ahead and tell yourself you are these things even though you will never make a living at it.  Tell yourself you are a dentist while you floss your teeth while you’re at it.  Tell yourself whatever the hell you want to, telling yourself things is free.  Then get back to work, the work that pays.  It is pleasant sometimes to think of what Benjamin Franklin called “foolish projects of growing suddenly rich.”  In reality there are only two working varieties of such a strategy: the first is a confidence job, the second is a meaningless accident of fate.  You’re better off wandering around outside looking for winning lottery tickets on the ground.  At least you’ll get a walk out of it.  Looked at objectively the overwhelming likelihood is that the majority of people do not and will not ever have anything like a calling, a vocation, a life’s work.  While sad, this is necessary: somebody has to clean all the toilets.

originally posted at spiritofsalt.com Apr 4, 2009 3:32 PM