A (pre-pandemic) observation from Philip Reed, a professional model maker: “I do not see that just having to stay in one place is a restriction on life. It’s more having to stay in one place in your head that’s a restriction on life.”
Alas, this essay is behind the paywall: “How Academe Breeds Resentment” (The Chronicle of Higher Education). Change a few words, and what Douglas Dowland says could apply to any workplace.
“All right, who do I want to be at the end of the day: promoted and a jerk, or owning myself and owning the way I want to be in the world and maybe missing out on that promotion?”
Rick Veach was our plumber and our heating and cooling specialist through almost all the twenty-seven years we’ve lived in our house. And he was our friend.
“To work, to create, to grow, and to give of yourself: that is one of the chief aims in life. To have experienced it once: that is a great experience. To do it a hundred and one times, well, that’s really a small miracle.”