{"id":2376,"date":"2012-05-02T00:45:09","date_gmt":"2012-05-02T07:45:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/?p=2376"},"modified":"2012-05-02T00:45:09","modified_gmt":"2012-05-02T07:45:09","slug":"for-whom-am-i-working","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/2012\/05\/02\/for-whom-am-i-working\/","title":{"rendered":"For Whom am I Working?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>Patrick and Telar,<\/em> a quick drawing of friends I just came across in an old sketchbook and seeming to fit here.<\/h6>\n

Here’s one for you.<\/p>\n

There was a man all alone, wealthy, but without family. He had his work, but it wasn’t enough. In the end he asked himself, \u201cWhat am I doing all this for?\u201d*<\/strong><\/p>\n

Have you ever experienced that? I have, like when Anne’s been away for a few days. That doesn’t happen too often. (Actually, it is too often, just not very<\/em> often.) At first I’m fine, relishing the time to really focus on whatever I’m doing.<\/p>\n

But after a couple of days, I begin to run out of enthusiasm or, rather, out of “reason.” Like the guy in Ecclesiastes I begin to wonder, “Who am I doing all this for?”<\/p>\n

It’s funny . . . up until that moment I would not have thought I was doing it for Anne, at least not the projects that have nothing to do with her. But as they weren’t for anyone else either, she fulfills (yet another) need I didn’t know I had.<\/p>\n

A friend of mine experienced the same thing in a bigger way after his wife died. After his grieving, he threw himself into his work as his purpose for living but in time he had the same question: “What am I doing all this for?”<\/p>\n

As it happened, he reconnected with an old friend, also recently widowed; they married and are now, in the natural course of things, happily doing things for each other.<\/p>\n

Not everybody can do that. But everyone needs someone, who, if only in the background, they’re doing things for. Otherwise we run out of reasons; and when we run out of reasons we run out of everything.<\/p>\n

Nowadays, whenever I start losing track of what I’m doing and why I am doing it, I think of someone I can dedicate the work to. They may never know . . . but it helps me.<\/p>\n

Certainly it helps in writing a blog, having an idea that someone’s out there, reading, reflecting, and maybe responding. That’s why, in the first line, I dedicated this one to you.<\/p>\n

Thanks for being there, giving me a reason to be here.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

________________________<\/p>\n

*Ecclesiastes 4:8 my paraphrase<\/p>\n

Next: Having Enough.<\/em> Coming Sunday.<\/p>\n


\n<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We don’t live in a vacuum. To do anything for very long, we need a reason. And a someone. Or it all dries up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2376"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2376"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2376\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3219,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2376\/revisions\/3219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}