"Occupations"

Aug. 7, 1853

            How trivial and uninteresting and wearisome and unsatisfactory are all employments for which men will pay you money!  The ways by which you may get money all lead downward.  To have done anything by which you earned money merely is to have been truly idle.

           The key word here, I think, is "merely".  At least I hope so.  Or else I've wasted many, many years.  Thoreau kept his overhead low, so he didn't need very much money.  (He built the cabin at Walden Pond for twenty-eight dollars and change, and lived at home a lot.)  When it comes to money, the key is that income should exceed expenses.  The actual amounts don't matter that much.

            I'm lucky enough to have a job that I fancy is important.  "I make a difference," the slogan used to go.  "I teach."