I've never liked the cultural dominance of the idea that we should give our lives to a career.
When I was twenty-five and newly married, I liked the idea of teaching because it was rewarding and supported my family and gave me 3 summer months to spend with them. After while I also found that I could develop other talents in those summer months. I did. I wrote. Developed skills as a wood carver, learned how to do a lot of do-it-youself around the house, even got better at parenting, maybe became a better lover.
Living the good life became my objective. My wife also had talents she wanted to develop, and soon found herself working as an independent interpersonal consultant making good money. She hadn't thought about that before. She discovered it and thrived.
Our daughters followed our paths in their own ways and thrived, playing and developing their talents. Both had adventures as Green Peace Activists. Today they live in loving marriages that work. They know how to handle conflict in creative and thoughtful ways. They chose men who follow similar paths that place making life good their first objective.
We all have enough income to buy what we want with more left over. We are content. I'm nearly 90, working with one of those talents I developed. It has proven to be a good thing to live a good life. Lucky us. How about devoting yourself to developing a good life? Would you call that a career?
Thanks for your response. It is good to know someone understands. Our careers are not our lives, but that is not a sentiment that seems widely understood.
Bill Mary Vallance Franco
2019-09-20
This sentiment resonates with me. I am a registered nurse, and I really wanted a career that was rewarding not only in decent wages, but emotionally and mentally. I enjoyed so much about the many jobs I had as a nurse and looked forward to every day of work. I have done ER, ICU, NICU and free children's clinics and love it all. However, I worked to live, I did not live to work. Ultimately when we began to raise a family, I sought a job that allow more time with my kids and I began a 25 year career as a school nurse, which, like your career, gave me holidays, weekends and summers off.