Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing. – Theodore Roosevelt
This was good for me to read today. I got a bit caught up in the ‘hard work’ stuff yesterday in the sense that I was treating it as ‘work hard now and satisfactions will come later.’ But this quote slaps me a little and reminds me that life already has given me a it’s best prize: a chance to work hard at something worth doing. I need to keep reminding myself that I’m not entitled to the results. Jeesh, you’d think I’d get this by now, but I’m finding that it requires constant vigilance. Maybe it’s the financial precariousness that does it, since in this culture, money is a huge measuring stick. And this Real Joe project that seems to be my vocation is causing financial strain that I’m somehow let diminish the feeling of ‘prize.’