“If you have built castles in the air, your work need not feel lost. That is where they should be. Now put foundations under them.” – Henry David Thoreau.
I think I admire Thoreau as much or more than any man or woman whose writings I read regularly. He is nothing but an inspiration to me, and a guide to living a self-determined life. I know if he were alive today he would not be fussing about health care, demanding his retirement security, listening to the “news” all day, counting his IRA, allowing fear to shape and dictate life. He seemed to have a genius for keeping his eye on what was important to him, even at some risk. That is real courage to me.
Like many great thinkers, he saw work as the centerpiece of identity, and in some ways, of life. Freud added love to the mix, and Thomas Merton said you cannot live a meaningful life without faith. I suppose they are all correct in different ways. I am working to have all of those things in my life.
Labor Day is a murky holiday in America right now, perhaps because the very idea of work is muddled in so many other things, many of them fearful. People work to make money, afford houses and cards, buy health care, have a “secure” retirement, send their kids to college. I personally hope the Stock Market floats out to sea, the sooner the better.
But I would hate to see the idea of finding work we love fade. I don’t see anyone parading on behalf of work we love, or the joy of the castles we build in the air. Work we love is important. It is, to me, what Labor Day is about, and I’ve never read or heard an intelligent thinker, from Thoreau to Steve Jobs, who didn’t talk about how important it is to find work we love. If that is taken from us, we have lost something dear. If we take it from ourselves, we have lost even more.
When I was thinking of buying Bedlam Farm, I was terrified. A writer’s life is not a secure or predictable one, nor, really, is anyone’s. I decided to buy my castle in the air because I loved it, and I felt I would come to love the work I did here. That happened, and then I came to love the person who would share it with me. Every day, I am building my castle in the air, and working to put a foundation under it. Every day.
This morning, I slid down the pasture, and my back is making me pay. I can’t wait to feel better. Even so, I got my photos, put up stories on my blog, wrote a chapter in my Frieda book.