Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Buddha Question: What side of the creaky fence do YOU sit on?

Just woke up. 9:43am. 2 ads, newsletter on graphic deadline before noon. Meetings with staff all day, national show tonight. Went to bed 4:46am. Massive day of techie geek upgrades to our computer network at Saint Rocke. Cursing myself for liking to learn, and then, when things are not gravy, not hiring professionals to do the work in half the time. Life of a business owner. Pretty romantic, eh?


The problem is more complicated, for reasons I can't discuss, but at the same time the problem is simple: when is too much work too much? In our culture, we see it all the time. In music, you can take your pick from a veritable ocean of songs that loathe the corporate fool, or wasting your life to work and forgetting about love. If you work alot, you are characterized immediately as lacking soul, lacking true direction in regards to Plato's objective nature of things. But where is the line?

Play for too long, too hard, and on the other side when you're older, you'll struggle. When you get sick, you won't have insurance or a roof over your head, and you'll have to rely on other people, which I think is part of what makes this country amazing and terrible at the same time.

Or work hard, really hard, and buy a nice home, and provide & be responsible for your family. When you get sick, you go to good doctors, and when a rainy day hits, you have an umbrella. But that takes toil, time, and when you'd rather be surfing....we'll, lets say you click on "surf report" , watch the cam, and daydream for 10.

I've been trying to ride that middle - and God knows (don't know if there is One, but read Pascals Wager and you'll understand) it's a thin fence. Right now, it's pretty clear what side I've been leaning towards, and I've got to say, it's sucking. So I begin the transition of my ass cheek to the other side of fence, lean a little too hard that way, and then write again in a few months about how there is more to life than being happy in the moment.

Or is there?

1 comment:

Sass said...

Wait... you sure it was 4:46? Not 4:45?

:)