Half of the Brain :
the place all those random thoughts that flit through my head each day go to die

Anything worth having in life is worth working hard for...

Do you think so? Sentiments like that are a direct outgrowth of the now-famous Protestant Work Ethic-- an important part of America's ideological history from James Smith's "if you don't work you won't eat" to Benjamin Franklin's list of virtues, to Horatio Alger pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps stories, to the entire mythic construct of the American dream.....

but again I have to ask, do you really think so?

We live in a world that judges us first and foremost by what we do for a living-- gotta go to work, work overtime, work weekends, bring work home. So many of us walk around in a perpetual state of exhaustion, develop medical problems because we've overtaxed and/or neglected our bodies, and are all the while miserable becuase our lives are somehow lacking-- lacking something meaning ful or something important.

So I have a suggestion for a new kind of work ethic: Anything worth having (worth doing, or worth devoting yourself to )shouldn't feel like work.

I'm not idealistic enough to think that we can reach a state of enlightenment that chores don't feel like chores. But what kind of world might we live in if most people did more with their life than just get up and go to work? What if our education system wasn't focused around teaching a set of specific skills to do a specific job? What if instead we focused on teaching an avocation? My sense is that folks in general will work unflaggingly for things they're passionate about.

What's your passion?

Its thoughts like these that make me wish socialism could work. I imagine more of us would work for our passions if it wasn't for the fact that so many of us have passions that won't net us any money. Alas... the benefits of living in a STAR TREK society, part 2: Does anyone aboard the enterprise ever worry about money?

But the thing is, it's not just careers.

How many times have I heard some kind of relationship counselor espouse something along the lines the "friendships that are worth anything are worth working for".

really?, I question as I raise my eyebrows. Seems to me any friendship or relationship I've ever had that is worth anything is based on respect and love, not work.

My oldest and dearest friends... the one who actually shares half of my brain, the one who lives half-a-world away but shares through e-mail all the familiarity of a neighborhood cafe, the one I haven't seen for years but greets me like we just had dinner last week, the one I know will share in every important milestone in my life, the one who keeps reminding me I'm destined for greatness, and then the one I don't call if I don't know that I've got 2 hours and a cuppa to settle in. . . All of those....

they weren't work, even in the beginning. They were just there. On some level, we shared one of our passions which made it natural for us to do life together. And we have. And we will. . . Those friendships are without a doubt worth having. In fact, I'd hazard they're much of what makes life worth living.