We are taught since youth to do the right things, develop the right habits, and build a good life. As words are only as good as their interpretation, perhaps stating the formula for a successful life in this way does more harm than good, for maybe we are not building at all…
Maybe life is more like sculpting; not an additive process at all, but a subtractive one, where unessential layers are peeled back, or chipped away- revealing what was hiding inside all along.
Perhaps this seems like too passive an approach to life…as if we didn’t struggle, we would succumb to laziness and passivity.
I think you would have to look long and hard to find a lazy sculptor. Rather, they watch…they look…they feel for the right stroke that will reveal the masterpiece that lies in every block of wood, every slab of marble.
Maybe observing our lives is the most productive thing we can do.