A letter to yourself…

God bless the Neil’s of the world.   May they live long and beautifully. That is my wish for all of you.  And while we can’t necessarily control how long we live, we can make a choice to live beautifully.

Life is rarely easy, and the world rarely bends over backwards to make our dreams come true or make the path smooth.  Be thankful when it does.  Nevertheless, being alive is a gift, or at least an opportunity. What will you do with it?

Neil’s father wanted him to be a doctor, perhaps because he had experienced poverty or hardship as a young man.  Neil’s dad has a story too. And, let’s facet it, most of us have to work for a living. That’s a good thing. Work is natural; work can provide purpose as well as the means (money, experiences) to achieve other ends - family, fulfillment, travel, helping others that don’t have the same opportunities. Working and making money is not selfish. At least it doesn’t have to be. Depends how you earn and use your money.

But most of you – virtually all of you in this room - are fortunate enough to have some choices about what you do with your future.  You don’t have to head straight to the coal mines or the rice paddies because those are the only options.  You have options.

Some careers will bring you great personal fulfillment, some will also pay well, some may do both.  But career is only part of your life. Your career might feed your heart and soul, but it might not, or not nearly enough.  It might be more of a means to an end.  But how will you be true to yourself? What, be it career or avocation, will feed your soul?  What will you do with this life?  Will you lead a life of desperation? Or selfishness and smallness? Or will you live with integrity, being true to both yourself, your purpose, and the dignity and purpose of others?

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms.”

Henry David Thoreau

Writing Prompt:  A letter to yourself.

Neil and his father perhaps couldn’t see that it doesn’t have to be all or nothing. I hope you can see that every problem has a solution.

Write a letter to yourself…open it at the beginning of next year…or whenever.  Consider some of the following questions, but you ae under no obligation to answer them like a short answer test.  Just let them serve as inspiration.

What do you want to do with your life? What will feed your heart and soul? What will allow you to put food on the table? What is your bliss? You can find it at work or outside of work, but what is it?  What do you want to do with this life? How might you make that happen? What possibilities are calling to you which perhaps you ought to listen to?

Bring an envelope tomorrow. Start your letter today and finish it tonight or tomorrow in class.  Just show it to me towards the end of class; I just want to see that you wrote one.  I’m not going to read it; it’s just for you.