Archive for the ‘job escape from work’ tag
“You have one year off from your job to write whatever you please. Merry Christmas.”
That sentence, spoken by Michael Brown
and accompanied by a gift of one year’s expenses,
sparked the creation Harper Lee’s greatest work -
To Kill a Mockingbird. I bring it up today because
she was born 82 years ago on this very day.
I also bring it up because it brings up
some interesting points about doing the One Big Thing -
the work that focuses your gifts, talents and callings.
The first is more of a question -
“even if I got a year’s worth of expenses covered,
would I be able to get the work done?”
I know I’d have problems doing it - it’s not the
shangri-la that it seems to be when viewed
from the vantage point of working a job
just to keep a roof over your head.
It would be a year of no excuses,
where the life work you wanted becomes work.
The job becomes a convenient excuse for
not doing your true work.
Maybe having a job that isn’t your true work,
but is more amenable to your true work is better option.
83 years ago today, T.S. Eliot took a position
at Faber & Faber, leaving his dreary
former position at Lloyd’s Bank.
The problem there is that even sort of true work
still becomes work, and thus a new source
of rationalization and procrastination.
If I had the perfect summarization to offer
on this subject, I would be offering it now.
I would also be a bit more renowned than I
am right now, which is to say that I would be renowned.
So I’m now back where I was before this,
but for these two hundred some-odd words.
Does anyone else have any ideas?
Tags: causes of procrastination, faber, harper lee, job escape from work, lloyd, merry christmas, michael brown, procrastination, rationalization, rationalization and procrastination, t s eliot, talents, to kill a mockingbird, true work