Labour Day Epiphany
posted by Anonymous
Epiphany: 3 a (1) : a usually sudden manifestation or perception of the essential nature or meaning of something (2) : an intuitive grasp of reality through something (as an event) usually simple and striking (3) : an illuminating discovery, realization, or disclosure b : a revealing scene or moment
First, I want to apologize for not attending the Emergency ESI meeting. As 4D mentioned below in the meeting minutes, my excuse was shoddy. The truth is, I continue to have trouble coming off of vacation: my health has gone into decline, and my spirits have been low. However,there was a gradual upturn on the weekend, punctuated by an epiphany. The epiphany came out of three unrelated things -- Musie's recent blog postings, a singer/songwriter I saw on the weekend, and a conversation I had with a young mystery writer last week. The epiphany was this: One of the great struggles of life is knowing when to work and when not to work. Overworking can be as bad as underworking. But, underworking can be bad, too! Pretty deep, eh?
Musie is doing well right now because she is not working so hard. She is learning to relax and enjoy the details of her life. Like many of us, her natural inclination is to overwork. She worked far too hard on the "M" relationship. That was not good. Relationships may be 'work' sometimes, but they should not be that much work. The relationship with "R" seems easy right now. I like that the man got them a dishwasher. Again... less work!! I also like that "R" is sleeping a lot and is still managing to fix things around the house.
Second event. I saw a really intelligent, great singer/songwriter on the weekend. Unfortunately, I felt that he ruined two potentially great songs by overworking them. They were too much. He didn't give his listeners enough credit, and they came across a bit wanky. Another example of how things can be ruined by overwork.
Third thing. A conversation with a young mystery writer. Here was the conversation:
Young mystery writer: What do you think I should do?
Agatha: Why are you asking me?
YMW: Because I want your opinion.
Agatha: OK. I think you need to work your ass off and stop asking people what you should do.
My goal for the next few months--figure out where I need to work more and where I need to work less.
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4 comments:
Aggie always gets it right.
I agree, Dwarfie. Aggie always gets it right. And she choses the right analogies. This idea crossed my mind too, this Labour Day weekend but I would've ended up saying something lame like You gotta know when to hold them. Know when to fold them... Just as well Aggie beat me to the punch.
Okay, I also fully agree that you're onto something deepish here, Ag. Labour appropriate to the project at hand is a difficult thing to get right, yet critical. Often more so than finding exactly the right project to jump upon.
But what's piquing my interest even more, right now, is the Muse's 'morbid fascination with all things strange...'
Does this not suggest all manner of possibilities...?
I agree, this is solid advice. I for one, whilst working on my house during my vacation, ensure time is made to not work, and do other things (like read your blog). If i may reach a little, a corollary to this could be that if your work, doesn't "feel" as much like work, then you tend to not need to *not* work as much. I could graph it if this comment engine supported graphs, but i don't think it does. Sorry for all the negatives.
And chair, yes, that would've been frightful, but still solid advice regardless, thanks for the cameo.
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