It was Don Cherry on one of his Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Hockey videos, a Christmas gift brought back from Canada, and we were wondering about Don’s background and we researched that while his life was full of hockey, his formal education didn’t go past high school.
“See,” said Liz. “Don Cherry didn’t get an education and he’s successful.”
Good point.
But Don Cherry did get an education in another way, through the school of, as it’s called, hard knocks, and that included many many years immersed in what he loves, that is the game of hockey.
Call Don what you will, nobody can deny that he knows his stuff. And that he’s, for lack of better words, happy. He’s made a life just as much as a living.
And you can’t ask for much more than to spend time with what you love. The money is almost an afterthought. And almost always, sooner or later, in one form or another, it comes.
This is what Alan Watts, a worthwhile British philosopher, has to say about it here, that if it’s just the money that you’re after, then you’ll spend your whole life doing what you don’t like so that you can continue more of the same until you’re even more unhappy.
It’s a tragedy of our time because this is what we tend to teach our children if, for no other reason than because it validates our own poor choices. Don’t do what you love. Do what you think will sell.
My prayer is that my own children don’t fall for the lie for even a second.
Conversely, if you do what you do because you like to, if you follow it as a calling, then the odds are good that you’ll not only be happier, but eventually you’ll become a master of at least some proficiency. You’ve put so much time into your love that it becomes second nature.
Even if your life is short, it will still be more enjoyable.
This, it seems to me – and thank you Mr. Watts for reminding us – is what they call bliss.
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So I was watching the above Alan Watts video thinking about all this and Liz was looking over my shoulder.
“I really want to be a billionaire,” she said.