I often wonder why I bother.
The entire United States seems perfectly willing to drown themselves in an ocean of overwork. Who am I to tell an entire country it is wrong??
Actually, I often wonder that. But real passion is not logical. It is its own justification. And so I continue, and will do so until I die because that is who I am.
I am going to share this email I got today. I have more than a few that echo these same sentiments and would like to thank those that feel moved to write. If I achieved nothing else through this website, it would be enough.
From: “Russ Strong” russ_kw@hotmail.com
To: kelliottdykes@yahoo.com
Subject: Stumbled across chasingeden.com
Date: Mon, 21 Jun 2004 11:06:47 -0700Hi Elliott,
The other day I stumbled upon your site, I’m not actually sure how, but it had something to do with me looking for travel information. Anyway, I’m glad I did because you’ve kept me occupied for quite some time now. It’s great reading your stuff, because for the most part I agree with your theories and observations about life, work/balance, misplaced American ideals, over consumption, etc, etc.
Every now and then I get so used to just living a life of working, reading, learning, sleeping, eating, and trying to have some fun that I forget what’s really important. Then usually I find something, in this case your site, and it reminds me.
The great thing about reading some of your writings is that it puts into words a lot of my own personal views, which you do much better and more concisely than I could ever do myself. I’m not really a writer, or even a thinker, I just usually have these half thoughts that end up circulating in my head.
Most of the people I know, co-workers, family, and friends, seem to just live their lives without questioning. And they are either content with the way things are, or they are too lazy to care about not being content. Most of them I think are the same, and I guess what sets them apart from people like you or me is that they are happy to have their jobs and afraid that they will lose them and then have nothing.
And it becomes part of who they are. To me my job is simply a semi enjoyable way to live a life of financial stability, and if things came crashing down I would just find something else. Whether it was still in the tech field or not I don’t think I would care. I’ve worked in construction and enjoyed it just as much, just with less money.
I admit that in itself is a bit of a compromise to who I am, but it’s like you’ve said, without work there is plenty of time, but then there’s not the money to enjoy the the other things.
So it comes to the balance issue. The one thing about me is that I fear being unstable, so I’ve built my life in the present to be a balance of what I “need” to do to provide a sense of security for myself, while still in other areas managing to be true to myself.
One of the things that sometimes makes difficult is that I’m currently living in San Diego, and if you’ve ever been here, I’m sure you’ve seen that it, and all of southern California in general, is the epitome of everything that’s “wrong” with American life; materialism, over consumption, greed, inequality, living beyond your means.
But on the other hand, having grown up in New England, it’s almost refreshing in a way compared to how close minded and “normal” everyone is back there. People here seem to be ok with things, and I guess that’s their perogative. Probably because they think it’s normal to never let go of their cell phone and have massive debt and bills, but hey they look good and drive nice cars.
The thing that makes it easier to handle is that I know my time here is limited. My girlfriend (who I happened to meet out here and is one of the reasons my 3+ years here have been so great) and I have decided that when she finishes her college work that we will do a bit of unscripted travel ourselves. I kind of got caught up after college with moving straight into the “real world”, so I am certainly looking forward to it. Although through college I got to do a bit of traveling, mostly in the States and England, it was nothing compared to what you’ve done and what we’re looking forward to doing.
Well, I guess I’ve rambled enough for a letter to someone who I don’t even know. It was just very refreshing to find your site, because every now and then I start to feel like I’m the only one who thinks most of what goes on in our society is just a bunch of BS. Which I guess is a bit hypocritical of me since I’m part of it, but anyway I guess the fact that I question and have made a conscious decision to do so makes it somewhat ok.
Take care,
Russ
People sometimes ask me what I learned when I was traveling. At the top of the list is this one great lesson: You change someone’s life forever every single day.
I take responsibility for that.
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