I'm reading The War of Art by Steven Pressfield. Trying to finish in time for a planned discussion at Emma about it later this week. I have just a few pages left, but this passage has a bit of a hold on me for the moment. It pretty much sums up the Big Question in my life, the one that makes me feel so stuck inside my own head that I sometimes can't put one foot in front of the other.
Our job in this lifetime is not to shape ourselves into some ideal we imagine we ought to be, but to find out who we already are and become it.
If we were born to paint, it's our job to become a painter.
If we were born to raise and nurture children, it's our job to become a mother.
If we were born to overthrow the order of ignorance and injustice of the world, it's our job to realize it and get down to business.
I'm documenting the passage so that when I do realize what my job in this life is, I can remember this moment of uncertainty and revel in the fact that I figured it out. Finally.
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1 comment:
My philosophy is sort of the opposite of this, but we end up in the same place. I don't think we're predestined for anything, I think it's totally up to us. That's a little bit scarier to think about, but it's also much more freeing. I don't like thinking I'm destined for one thing (what if I don't like it?), but the end result is the same. You find what you love, and then it's your job to do that thing as well as you possibly can.
In this case, I guess it doesn't really matter how you get there, as long as you're on your way.
Also, I am not reading the book, so I'm probably blabbing about something I know nothing about. It's a speciality of mine. :)
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