Opus Vida – An Individual Life
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A Successful Life?
I was asked, "how would you describe a successful life?" I thought for a minute or so: "satisfaction." The immediate response was "No, you have to consider upbringing: getting a Masters, teaching at a junior college, at an elementary school, school principal - pretty successful life." But that's not what you asked. The sound of your voice implied what others think defines your success. You asked "me" what "I" thought: satisfaction.
Satisfaction is OK. I know you don't like "OK." It's a balance: some great highs, some miserable lows and all points inbetween. No, you may not have fulfilled your fantasies/dreams. No, home life could be better.... But it's OK.
You wouldn't give me an answer when I asked you except what others would say, looking at your life. You took a while and finally said "contentment."
Cool, what does that mean? Are you content?
Welcome to My Life – 71 Years and Counting
An individual is born, lives a life accumulating things, ideas, experiences, and then dies. Where go the artefacts generated through that life? Family is first on the scene, going through the remains, but family have only so much space so the pickings are small. The individual's life is forgotten except for photos kept and reminiscences among themselves. How many generations of photos are kept? How many stories remain? The experiences and ideas. Who gets my stuff when I'm gone? Who really cares? My guitars, songs, writings, stories, essays, drawings – the stuff of my life – furniture I've made, wood that I've worked, things fabricated.
We chronicle the lives of "important" figures throughout history. Very few of us warrant a gander: the hopes, loves, dreams, ideas of the rest of us. What's your story? What's your song? What have you done? We can be Tom Hanks when he made fire in "Castaway" - "look what I have done!" Lest we forget ourselves, let us say "look what we have done!
– Thom and Willy