# Right, Not Trite



## Prof (Mar 14, 2008)

*Right, not Trite*​​This is coming because of an article written the other day asking what life lessons we have learned and perhaps even passed on.  It reminded me of a quote I've carried in my wallet for years.  It was first said by that great philosopher Satchel Paige.  It is short, true, and pure poetry.  he said "Work like you don't need the money.  Love like you've never been hurt.  Dance like no one's watching."  At the time it was just an easy answer to the question, but it set me to thinking. What fallows is a --a--- well, not a final answer, but a kind of thought process in process.​​WORK LIKE YOU DON"T NEED THE MONEY.​ What a wonderful way to put it.  Think of the things you do because you enjoy them.  Are they the same things you do for money?  I admit that there is likely some crossover, but mostly I'll bet the two lists are quite different.  Yet why should that be?  In the play "Over the Tavern" young Rudy, the main character, asks his father that very question.  Rudy doesn't understand why his father keeps on at a job he hates.  It's a good question.  The answer of course is money.  His father needs to put food on the table.  Still, here is something to Satchel's concept.  He loved baseball and he got to play it for more years than just about any other player.  It's very possible he had over 1600 career wins  Work like you don't need the money.  I tought for 34 years.  I got paid to tallk about things I was intersted in.  I hope everyone should be so lucky.​​LOVE LIKE YOU"VE NEVER BEEN HURT.​ I felt a real stab of pain as I read that.  Sure I'd read it before, but the article made me remember it again.  As it happens I started a project a few months ago.  I found all the letters I'd received from my wife before we were married; about 150 or so, written over a four year period.  I asked my wife if she still had the letters I'd written to her and she did., another 150.  So I started out to see if I could discover how and why we ended up married . (43 years last June)  I'm publishing it here iTest Page for the SSL/TLS-aware Apache Installation on Web Site anyone is interested. (I really am intersted in comments on it and I wonder if I should show it to my wife.  It's as true as I can make it.) I am just now at the part where we came the closest to losing it, and I can feel yet the pains I felt then.  But I do love her like I've never been  hurt and I think that's why we have had such a glorious marriage.​ DABCE LIKE NOBODY"S WATCHING.​Go on, take a chance, do it.  Another motto I sort of live by is "What's the worst that can happen"  I often judge actions (and inaction's) by the answer to that question.  If I can live with the result I plan accordingly.  I do a lot of community theater and one night I stopped by our local theater to  see if the guy who was putting up lights for my show needed any help.  When I walked in to the theater lobby there was very loud  music being played.  I stepped into the theater itself and there was Matt, doing his own imitation of John Travolta dancing to Staying Alive.  Matt didn't see me and I quickly stepped back into the lobby and slammed the door loudly.  When I went back in Matt was up a ladder working on a light setting.  Still, he had been dancing like no on was watching, and obviously loving it.​​What's the purpose here.  I'm not sure, sometimes I just need to write as a cathartic.  This is one of those times.  BTW Satchel also said "The two most powerful forces on earth are money and women.  We do things to get them that we wouldn't do for anything else."  Satch may be underrated as a philosopher.​​Thanks for listening.


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## Linton Robinson (Mar 14, 2008)

How about:

Work like nobody's watching.

Dance like you've never been hurt.

Love like you don't need the money.

More typical attitudes, I think.


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## Prof (Mar 14, 2008)

Agreed, and more cynical too.


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