There is what we do to live, and there is what we live to do. Occasionally these may be the same thing. There are artists who support themselves with their art, and musicians who make a living with their music. Most of us do what we love by paying the bills doing what we don’t love to do. Some teachers teach when they would prefer to be writing poetry, or taking photographs. We come to terms the best we can with the life we are living, and get up and meet the day.
I find sitting quietly to be what I’m built to do, and I don’t know of anyone who makes a living sitting quietly. So, I’ve had to work it out all my life long, and now that I am retired, I can sit quietly as long as I want, as often as I want. And, I haven’t found anything to beat it.
Sitting quietly is basically a matter of reflection. Joseph Campbell made it work for him, much like I have done, and said that “reflection leads to new realizations.” I have certainly found that to be the case, and look forward to what I will realize next all of the time.
Pondering contradictions and incongruity is particularly intriguing, and have discovered that the further we go into anything, the more oppositional it becomes. We all are our opposites and become what we are not, or find ways to express/serve who we are not, even to the point of making a living from it if we are lucky.
I was a minister for 40.5 years–an introvert pretending to be an extrovert all that time. Conducting weddings and funerals, leading worship services and attending weekly family night dinners. Who would have thought it? The opposites within are often our most intriguing aspects. The places we have the most fun. The things that “pull us out,” develop us, grow us up.
And every Yin has its Yang, as the old taoists used to say. Yin is the black, feminine side and Yang is the white, boisterous, obnoxious side. And together, they make a wonderful pair. Don’t you think so?
Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy 