From the archive

Stop turning every pleasure into work

Every ability apparently owes the world an immediate economic justification. You take photographs: where are the bookings? You write: where's the audience? You make furniture: why aren't you selling it? You speak a language: why aren't you teaching evening lessons? Because in the evening, perhaps I want to speak the language. Read a book. Talk to someone. Not fill another part of my day with obligations I'll need to recover from afterward. Enjoyment somehow counts as an insufficient return on time. It absolutely has to become something you can put on an invoice.