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Was going through my old posts on Cohost (😢), and found a discussion about art and commerce with a quote from Calvin and Hobbes creator Bill Waterson that’s worth preserving:
"Creating a life that reflects your values and satisfies your soul is a rare achievement. In a culture that relentlessly promotes avarice and excess as the good life, a person happy doing his own work is usually considered an eccentric, if not a subversive. Ambition is only understood if it's to rise to the top of some imaginary ladder of success. Someone who takes an undemanding job because it affords him the time to pursue other interests and activities is considered a flake. A person who abandons a career in order to stay home and raise children is considered not to be living up to his potential-as if a job title and salary are the sole measure of human worth. You'll be told in a hundred ways, some subtle and some not, to keep climbing, and never be satisfied with where you are, who you are, and what you're doing. There are a million ways to sell yourself out, and I guarantee you'll hear about them."
Yeah. When greed and ambition mix, it creates miserable scenarios.
In a better world, people could express themselves and entertain others without pressure. Creativity is a natural trait for humans (and many animals too!) but when mixed with avarice, it can shift from something that makes you happy to something that makes you more mean and miserable than before.
Over the course of my life I’ve met many successful but unhappy people. And not a few them ended their lives prematurely through alcohol, drugs, and other forms of unaliving. Because of that negative example, I decided on a soul-oriented life.
Or to put it words from long ago…
"Creating a life that reflects your values and satisfies your soul is a rare achievement. In a culture that relentlessly promotes avarice and excess as the good life, a person happy doing his own work is usually considered an eccentric, if not a subversive. Ambition is only understood if it's to rise to the top of some imaginary ladder of success. Someone who takes an undemanding job because it affords him the time to pursue other interests and activities is considered a flake. A person who abandons a career in order to stay home and raise children is considered not to be living up to his potential-as if a job title and salary are the sole measure of human worth. You'll be told in a hundred ways, some subtle and some not, to keep climbing, and never be satisfied with where you are, who you are, and what you're doing. There are a million ways to sell yourself out, and I guarantee you'll hear about them."
Yeah. When greed and ambition mix, it creates miserable scenarios.
In a better world, people could express themselves and entertain others without pressure. Creativity is a natural trait for humans (and many animals too!) but when mixed with avarice, it can shift from something that makes you happy to something that makes you more mean and miserable than before.
Over the course of my life I’ve met many successful but unhappy people. And not a few them ended their lives prematurely through alcohol, drugs, and other forms of unaliving. Because of that negative example, I decided on a soul-oriented life.
Or to put it words from long ago…
For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?
Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
-- Matthew 16:26 (KJV)
Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
-- Matthew 16:26 (KJV)