“Man is so made that he can only find relaxation from one kind of labor by taking up another.”
– Anatole France
When I’m not working, I’m working.
I’m working out, stressing my muscles instead of my mind.
Or I’m doing physical labor, improving the world around me through my efforts to move rocks and buck up fallen trees and build things.
My mind is at ease and recharges and refreshes while I stress my body with a five-mile run.
When I prep dinner, technically I am not working but I am either listening to an audiobook to continue my growth or I am teaching my kids to cook, imparting wisdom and developing their independence which is part of the job description of a father.
When I don’t work, I work on other things.
Humans were not meant to lay on a couch watching a screen.
We are meant to move and learn, to create and to interact with others. The job of being a human is to live up to our potential in all forms, to craft a future where we can be better than we are today or at least counter the entropy and decay of age and the encroachment of chaos and disorder.
We are not meant to be fat and happy, we are meant to be active and challenged. Physically. Intellectually. Emotionally. Spiritually.
The job of a human is to LIVE, and we should always be on the job.