Full tilt. Full on. Full out. Flat out. Out there. Pedal to
the metal.
I'm speaking about a way of living, a calling actually.
Who lives this way? Who's called to live this way? Who
works this way? You're standing up (figuratively if not
literally) if you live this way and if you work this way. It's been
said if you work this way, you're a workaholic. I don't have
any idea what that means. What exactly is a workaholic? I
don't know. I don't work any more. I stopped working a
long time ago so I'm not qualified to say. I only play. I
play all the time. There's no difference between work and play.
If there's a difference, it's arbitrary at best. The question is
apropos: do you live this way? Do you work this way? Do
you play this way? Stand up if you do.
So you also don't work any more? And you also play all the time? It
could be said if you play this way, you're a play-aholic. Is
being a playaholic a good thing or a bad
thing? Setting whether good and bad are weak
distinctions aside, I don't have much charge either way with
playaholics. What exactly is a workaholic? What exactly is
a playaholic? Someone who works hard? Someone who plays
hard?
Well ... how cool is that? There's
nothing wrong
with working hard. There's
nothing wrong
with playing hard. Yet there's something else implied by the moniker
"workaholic", something else implied by the moniker "playaholic",
something else to consider here ...
If I were to express an opinion about an anything-aholic, how
hard he or she works and how hard he or she plays wouldn't have much to
do with it. What I'm interested in is this: what's the
context
in which he or she lives? What's the self-generated
context
in which he or she works and plays? That's what I want to
know about. That's what I'm interested in. Because without
a self-generated
context
of
Self,
living pedal to the metal passes Life by - just as without a
self-generated
context
of
Self,
working and playing pedal to the metal passes Life by ... and
within a self-generated
context
of
Self,
living, working, and playing pedal to the metal brings Life forth and
inspires.
I'm also interested in this: is living pedal to the metal something you
have to do? Is working pedal to the metal something you
have to do? Is playing pedal to the metal something you
have to do? Or is it something you choose to
do? This question can't be answered truthfully superficially. It
can only be answered truthfully unflinchingly. It can only be
answered truthfully if you go deeper than the right
answer, deeper than the answer which makes you look good, and
really tell the truth about
what's so
for you. When it's something you have to do, it's bound up
in your survival. It's bound up in your uncreative
automaticity. You may get a lot of living done (we notice that),
you may get a lot of work done (we admire that), you may get a lot of
playing done (we envy that) but at what cost? At what cost
to your relationships? At what cost to your aliveness? At what cost to
your integrity? At what cost to your sense of fulfillment
and completion?
When you're living and working and playing pedal to the metal within a
self-generated
context
of
Selfand it's what you choose to do rather than what you have
to do, then My
Friend
I say you're really on to something.