This resonates deeply and I feel like it is a piece I will return to repeatedly to try to make sense of my ethics and spirituality. (A deeply religious friend once asked me “if there is no hell, then what stops people from doing horrible things?” And my response of “because we aren’t assholes and it isn’t fear keeping us in line” was insufficiently persuasive… and yet even to me there’s something more to it that I struggle to express.)
Also the perspective of “chosen burdens” is helpful. Instead of “I have to go to work” it becomes “I choose to go to work because I want to maintain my shelter/buy groceries/etc” and then I find myself asking questions like “what if I grew my own food?” Which is a very valid question, that can be answered quite resoundingly by my gardening efforts. But though the result is the same (I go to work), the latter is more comfortable to live with.
All that to say… thank you for this piece. And for explaining why I keep gardening and keep getting satisfaction from it despite results.
Hi Heather, I'm so sorry to have taken so long to reply - May and June are hectic times for me each year - but thank you for such kind and thoughtful feelings.
Identifying 'chosen burdens' and 'getting satisfaction (from something worth doing) despite results' are counter-cultural responses and can be tiring in the face of social pressures, so it's a real and vitalising boost to hear that some of these ideas resonate with you.
This resonates deeply and I feel like it is a piece I will return to repeatedly to try to make sense of my ethics and spirituality. (A deeply religious friend once asked me “if there is no hell, then what stops people from doing horrible things?” And my response of “because we aren’t assholes and it isn’t fear keeping us in line” was insufficiently persuasive… and yet even to me there’s something more to it that I struggle to express.)
Also the perspective of “chosen burdens” is helpful. Instead of “I have to go to work” it becomes “I choose to go to work because I want to maintain my shelter/buy groceries/etc” and then I find myself asking questions like “what if I grew my own food?” Which is a very valid question, that can be answered quite resoundingly by my gardening efforts. But though the result is the same (I go to work), the latter is more comfortable to live with.
All that to say… thank you for this piece. And for explaining why I keep gardening and keep getting satisfaction from it despite results.
Hi Heather, I'm so sorry to have taken so long to reply - May and June are hectic times for me each year - but thank you for such kind and thoughtful feelings.
Identifying 'chosen burdens' and 'getting satisfaction (from something worth doing) despite results' are counter-cultural responses and can be tiring in the face of social pressures, so it's a real and vitalising boost to hear that some of these ideas resonate with you.
Thank you so much. G