Okay, so I gathered together some quotes on this great subject, which is scary and exhilarating at the same time:
"Remember the last line [of Sinclair Lewis' Babbitt]? 'I have never done the thing that I wanted to in all my life.' That is a man who never followed his bliss. Well, I actually heard that line when I was teaching at Sarah Lawrence. Before I was married, I used to eat out in the restaurants of town for my lunch and dinners. Thursday night was the maid's night off in Bronxville, so that many of the families were out in restaurants. One fine evening I was in my favorite restaurant there, and at the next table there was a father, a mother, and a scrawny boy about twelve years old. The father said to the boy, 'Drink your tomato juice.' And the boy said, 'I don't want to.' Then the father, with a louder voice, said, 'Drink your tomato juice.' And the mother said, 'Don't make him do what he doesn't want to do.' The father looked at her and said, 'He can't go through life doing what he wants to do. If he does only what he wants to do, he'll be dead. Look at me. I've never done a thing I wanted to in all my life.' And I thought, 'My God, there's Babbitt incarnate!' That's the man who never followed his bliss. You may have a success in life, but then just think of it—what kind of life was it? What good was it—you've never done the thing you wanted to do in all your life. I always tell my students, go where your body and soul want to go. When you have the feeling, then stay with it, and don't let anyone throw you off." —Joseph Campbell
• • • •
"Poets are simply those who have made a profession and a lifestyle of being in touch with their bliss. . . When I taught in a boys’ prep school, I used to talk to the boys who were trying to make up their minds as to what their careers were going to be. A boy would come to me and ask, 'Do you think I can do this? Do you think I can do that? Do you think I can be a writer?' 'Oh,' I would say, 'I don’t know. Can you endure ten years of disappointment with nobody responding to you, or are you thinking that you are going to write a best seller the first crack? If you have the guts to stay with the thing you really want, no matter what happens, well, go ahead.' Then Dad would come along and say, 'No, you ought to study law because there is more money in that, you know.' Now, that is the rim of the wheel, not the hub, not following your bliss. Are you going to think of fortune, or are you going to think of your bliss?" —Joseph Campbell
• • • •
"I've spoken to a lot of people, and they say, 'Gee, I'd sure like to be able to do something like that.' And the only thing that's keeping anybody from doing exactly that is the fact that they don't believe they can do it. It's frustrating, because you say, 'Hey, man, it's the easiest thing in the world: all you have to do is just do what you want and don't do anything else.'" —Jerry Garcia (1983)
• • • •
"I think, honestly, you have to expect to have a day-job, or something like that, because very few people are lucky enough to actually make a living at music." —Jerry Garcia (1991)
• • • •
"Maybe you collect or maybe you pay
Still got to work that eight hour day
Whether you like that job or not
Gotta do your work while you're
lining up your long shot
Which is so say
hey-ey
Keep your day job
Don't give it away
Keep your day job
Whatever they say" —Robert Hunter
• • • •
"Shadows of a sailor forming
winds both foul and fair all swarm
down in Carlisle he loved a lady
many years ago
Here beside him stands a man,
a soldier by the looks of him,
Who came through many fights,
but lost at love
While the storyteller speaks
a door within the fire creaks
suddenly flies open
and a girl is standing there
Eyes alight with glowing hair
all that fancy paints as fair
she takes her fan and throws it
in the lion's den
'Which of you to gain me, tell
will risk uncertain pains of Hell?
I will not forgive you
if you will not take the chance'
The sailor gave at least a try
the soldier being much too wise
strategy was his strength
and not disaster
The sailor coming out again
the lady fairly lept at him
that's how it stands today
you decide if he was wise" —Robert Hunter
• • • •
"What makes you itch? What sort of a situation would you like? Let's suppose — I do this often in vocational guidance of students — they come to me and say, 'well, we're getting out of college, and we haven't the faintest idea what we want to do.' So I always ask the question, 'what would you like to do if money were no object? How would you really enjoy spending your life?' Well, it’s so amazing that as a result of our kind of educational system, crowds of students say, 'well, we’d like to be painters, we’d like to be poets, we’d like to be writers, but as everybody knows, you can’t earn any money that way.' Another person says, 'well, I'd like to live an out-of-doors life and ride horses.' I say, 'do you want to teach in a riding school? Let's go through with it. What do you want to do?'
When we finally got down to something which the individual says he really wants to do, I will say to him: 'You do that and forget the money.' Because if you say that getting the money is the most important thing, you will spend your life completely wasting your time. You’ll be doing things you don’t like doing in order to go on living that is to go on doing things you don’t like doing. Which is stupid! Better to have a short life that is full of what you like doing, than a long life spent in a miserable way. And after all if you do really like what you’re doing — it doesn’t matter what it is — you can eventually become a master of it. It’s the only way to be a master of something, to be really with it. And then you’ll be able to get a good fee for whatever it is. So don’t worry too much. Somebody is interested in everything. And anything you can be interested in you'll find others are.
But it is absolutely stupid to spend your time doing things you don’t like in order to go on spending your time doing things that you don’t like and to teach your children to follow in the same track. See what we are doing, is we’re bringing up children, educating them, to live the same sort of lives we are living. In order that they may justify themselves and find satisfaction in life by bringing up their children, to bring up their children to do the same thing, so it's all retch and no vomit — it never gets there.
Therefore it is so important to consider this question, 'What do I desire?'" —Alan Watts
"Remember the last line [of Sinclair Lewis' Babbitt]? 'I have never done the thing that I wanted to in all my life.' That is a man who never followed his bliss. Well, I actually heard that line when I was teaching at Sarah Lawrence. Before I was married, I used to eat out in the restaurants of town for my lunch and dinners. Thursday night was the maid's night off in Bronxville, so that many of the families were out in restaurants. One fine evening I was in my favorite restaurant there, and at the next table there was a father, a mother, and a scrawny boy about twelve years old. The father said to the boy, 'Drink your tomato juice.' And the boy said, 'I don't want to.' Then the father, with a louder voice, said, 'Drink your tomato juice.' And the mother said, 'Don't make him do what he doesn't want to do.' The father looked at her and said, 'He can't go through life doing what he wants to do. If he does only what he wants to do, he'll be dead. Look at me. I've never done a thing I wanted to in all my life.' And I thought, 'My God, there's Babbitt incarnate!' That's the man who never followed his bliss. You may have a success in life, but then just think of it—what kind of life was it? What good was it—you've never done the thing you wanted to do in all your life. I always tell my students, go where your body and soul want to go. When you have the feeling, then stay with it, and don't let anyone throw you off." —Joseph Campbell
• • • •
"Poets are simply those who have made a profession and a lifestyle of being in touch with their bliss. . . When I taught in a boys’ prep school, I used to talk to the boys who were trying to make up their minds as to what their careers were going to be. A boy would come to me and ask, 'Do you think I can do this? Do you think I can do that? Do you think I can be a writer?' 'Oh,' I would say, 'I don’t know. Can you endure ten years of disappointment with nobody responding to you, or are you thinking that you are going to write a best seller the first crack? If you have the guts to stay with the thing you really want, no matter what happens, well, go ahead.' Then Dad would come along and say, 'No, you ought to study law because there is more money in that, you know.' Now, that is the rim of the wheel, not the hub, not following your bliss. Are you going to think of fortune, or are you going to think of your bliss?" —Joseph Campbell
• • • •
"I've spoken to a lot of people, and they say, 'Gee, I'd sure like to be able to do something like that.' And the only thing that's keeping anybody from doing exactly that is the fact that they don't believe they can do it. It's frustrating, because you say, 'Hey, man, it's the easiest thing in the world: all you have to do is just do what you want and don't do anything else.'" —Jerry Garcia (1983)
• • • •
"I think, honestly, you have to expect to have a day-job, or something like that, because very few people are lucky enough to actually make a living at music." —Jerry Garcia (1991)
• • • •
"Maybe you collect or maybe you pay
Still got to work that eight hour day
Whether you like that job or not
Gotta do your work while you're
lining up your long shot
Which is so say
hey-ey
Keep your day job
Don't give it away
Keep your day job
Whatever they say" —Robert Hunter
• • • •
"Shadows of a sailor forming
winds both foul and fair all swarm
down in Carlisle he loved a lady
many years ago
Here beside him stands a man,
a soldier by the looks of him,
Who came through many fights,
but lost at love
While the storyteller speaks
a door within the fire creaks
suddenly flies open
and a girl is standing there
Eyes alight with glowing hair
all that fancy paints as fair
she takes her fan and throws it
in the lion's den
'Which of you to gain me, tell
will risk uncertain pains of Hell?
I will not forgive you
if you will not take the chance'
The sailor gave at least a try
the soldier being much too wise
strategy was his strength
and not disaster
The sailor coming out again
the lady fairly lept at him
that's how it stands today
you decide if he was wise" —Robert Hunter
• • • •
"What makes you itch? What sort of a situation would you like? Let's suppose — I do this often in vocational guidance of students — they come to me and say, 'well, we're getting out of college, and we haven't the faintest idea what we want to do.' So I always ask the question, 'what would you like to do if money were no object? How would you really enjoy spending your life?' Well, it’s so amazing that as a result of our kind of educational system, crowds of students say, 'well, we’d like to be painters, we’d like to be poets, we’d like to be writers, but as everybody knows, you can’t earn any money that way.' Another person says, 'well, I'd like to live an out-of-doors life and ride horses.' I say, 'do you want to teach in a riding school? Let's go through with it. What do you want to do?'
When we finally got down to something which the individual says he really wants to do, I will say to him: 'You do that and forget the money.' Because if you say that getting the money is the most important thing, you will spend your life completely wasting your time. You’ll be doing things you don’t like doing in order to go on living that is to go on doing things you don’t like doing. Which is stupid! Better to have a short life that is full of what you like doing, than a long life spent in a miserable way. And after all if you do really like what you’re doing — it doesn’t matter what it is — you can eventually become a master of it. It’s the only way to be a master of something, to be really with it. And then you’ll be able to get a good fee for whatever it is. So don’t worry too much. Somebody is interested in everything. And anything you can be interested in you'll find others are.
But it is absolutely stupid to spend your time doing things you don’t like in order to go on spending your time doing things that you don’t like and to teach your children to follow in the same track. See what we are doing, is we’re bringing up children, educating them, to live the same sort of lives we are living. In order that they may justify themselves and find satisfaction in life by bringing up their children, to bring up their children to do the same thing, so it's all retch and no vomit — it never gets there.
Therefore it is so important to consider this question, 'What do I desire?'" —Alan Watts
