{"id":2608,"date":"2017-07-24T06:24:54","date_gmt":"2017-07-24T10:24:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.graymanwrites.com\/blog\/?p=2608"},"modified":"2017-07-23T23:28:15","modified_gmt":"2017-07-24T03:28:15","slug":"the-true-joy-in-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.grayrinehart.com\/blog\/the-true-joy-in-life\/","title":{"rendered":"The True Joy in Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

(Another in the series of quotes to start the week<\/a>.)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

For many years now I’ve kept this passage from George Bernard Shaw in my collection of quotes:<\/p>\n

This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.<\/p>\n

I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community, and as long as I live it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can.<\/p>\n

I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no “brief candle” for me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Shaw’s birthday is this week: Wednesday, to be exact (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950). Probably best known for his 1913 play Pygmalion<\/em>, Shaw was the first person to receive both a Nobel Prize in Literature (in 1925) and an Academy Award (in 1938, for Best Adapted Screenplay … of Pygmalion<\/em>).<\/p>\n

That quote from Shaw convicts me, for I do not work as hard or as diligently as I ought. I am too often a “feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances.” I can<\/em> work, I have<\/em> worked — my novel, coming out on Shaw’s birthday, is proof at least of that capability — but I need to apply myself more fully to my work.<\/p>\n

\"
\n“Life is no ‘brief candle’ for me,” wrote George Bernard Shaw. (Image: “Candle Burning,” by Nanda93, on Wikimedia Commons.)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

I hope I can do better, this week and onward, to find that “true joy in life” of believing that my purpose is “a mighty one” and that the work I do is meaningful and important — even if only to myself.<\/p>\n

And I hope you find that true joy, as well.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"pinterest\"<\/a>\"linkedin\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>by <\/span>\"feather\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Another in the series of quotes to start the week.) For many years now I’ve kept this passage from George Bernard Shaw in my collection of quotes: This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being a \u2026 Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[444],"class_list":["post-2608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-musings","tag-quotes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grayrinehart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grayrinehart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grayrinehart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grayrinehart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grayrinehart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2608"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.grayrinehart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2608\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2609,"href":"https:\/\/www.grayrinehart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2608\/revisions\/2609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grayrinehart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grayrinehart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grayrinehart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}