In recent days, several people I know that I hadn’t spoken with in awhile told me they were seeking a life of meaning, they all were making plans – when their kids grew up, when they retired, when they had put away a half-million dollars in IRA’s, when their wife or husband agreed to move. All were readers of the blog and the wanted me to know this is what they wish for themselves, and I was touched.
I have always thought about what it means to have a life of meaning, for me and for others. I hope these good people get the life they want, but I have learned in my life that people who put their true lives off for money, safety, retirement or the approval of others have already given up on it, they just don’t know it. I understand and respect their choices. In our culture, many of us live for money – for the mortgage, for technology, for college, retirement, health care, for support for their parents and families, for obligations to their kids.
Life is complex, and the Fear Machine instructs us constantly to make sure we have the things we need to live safely in this world. All of them cost a lot of money.
Those are all good and valid reasons, I would never criticize those decisions or make light of them. But I have the same feeling I get when people tell me they tell their gifted sons and daughters that it’s okay to be a musician, a writer, an artist, but don’t give up your day job. A lot of creative lives die under the weight of that advice, that is not what people seeking a creative or meaningful life need to hear. They need to hear, at any age go for it, you can do it, lots of people have, live the life you want to live, answer the call of your heart.The encouragers, not the naysayers, are the true angels of our realm.
When people ask me – anybody, especially younger people – about being a writer, I tell them go for it, lots of people do it. But do give up your day job, if you don’t, you will most likely never find the strength to commit yourself to live the life you really want. There are no safe places in the world, no such thing as security. If you consider the people you know with a lot of money, you will see for yourself what I mean.
I can only speak for myself, not for anyone else. I don’t tell others what to do, I just share my own choices and decisions. A meaningful life is a leap of faith, a coming out, a plunge over the high rocks into the deep pool. I am halfway there on a good day, I wonder if I shall ever get there, I will surely keep on trying.
A life based on money – work done only for money – is a a kind of slavery. It is a hollow life lived by hollow men and women. . It is rarely the path to a life of meaning and purpose. A life based on security may be a safe life, but it is rarely a life of meaning. I do not wish to look back on my life and say I worked for money, I lived for security. And it’s a good thing, as I have neither.
I am getting closer to a life of meaning. A life with love, friendship, creativity, encouragement, human connection, a life in nature, and with animals, a life doing what I always wanted to do – write. And now, take photos. It is not an easy life, not a perfect life, it is my life, it has meaning. Where I can, I encourage others to answer the call of their creative spark, I teach what I have learned to those who wish to hear it. I am not living a life others have dictated for me, my life is a struggle and a joy. It has meaning and purpose. That is my choice, it is not everyone’s.
A life of meaning is almost always an echo of the hero journey. We live the familiar, set out into the unknown, we enter dark and frightening places. If we are fortunate, we encounter magical helpers, often in the form of spirits or animals, we discover our myths and live them, the helpers guide us through to the other side. Or we fall into the abyss, we vanish into the darkness, and are never whole again.
I want to tell those friends who assure me they are seeking a life of meaning that such a life is frightening. Time is precious, a meaningful life cannot be scheduled down the road. John Updike said writers don’t talk about writing, they write. I believe the same is true of those seeking a life of meaning and purpose. There is no day job to get one safely through the journey, no retirement plan or pension that guarantees fulfillment.
I knew all along that if I waited until the end of my life, until I had safety and security, to pursue love and a life of creativity then it would be too late for me. And too difficult. For me, there is nothing safer or more secure or more important than a life of fulfillment in the pursuit of heart and soul.
