At some point, you gotta slow down...

America is ridiculous about working, I think. It has been said of Americans that we are lazy and fat...I'll give the nay-sayers the latter, but I certainly don't think Americans are lazy. In fact, I think we are way too focused on our jobs. I think we spend too much time at our occupations, and too little time doing whatever it is that makes us feel truly alive. True, you have to pay the bills...and your job should expect you to work hard while you're there...but if your central life occupation is that thing you do for money, you're missing it. I'm missing it, I think. Quite a lot.

I've been working on the house quite a bit. It's envigorating for me...it's energizing (save for the fourteen trips a day to Home Depot). Do you know what I like most about it? It feels like I'm doing something that really matters, you know? That's permanent...or at least semi-permanent. The trouble with work at work is that there's always more...there's a continuous stream of it; as soon as you're finished with one piece, you're on to the next. I don't feel that way when I'm working on the house. I feel like, "That screw that I just screwed into the wall will be there for years...it will be there until I choose to change it." The paint, the sanding, the hinges, the doors, the closet racks...they will all be there for quite some time. I like that. It feels like I'm really getting something done.

...but at some point, you gotta slow down and enjoy it. I've gotta stop for little chunks of time and enjoy it. How many 40-year-old professionals have died of a two-artery coronary before they've stopped to enjoy what they've worked for all that time? I don't want to end up there. I want to enjoy life now, and stop putting off celebrating all the crap we already have.

I think tonight I may go home and sit on the couch and stare at my unfinished floor, my uncovered walls, and the china hutch I've yet to put back in the right place...and I will drink a beer and I will choose to enjoy it.

Peace,
Justin