To be or not to be a bee.
Dear diary!
I have been following Chris Guillebeau’s blog – ‘The art of non conformity’ – for a while now.
Here is a guy who quit his business and decided to travel the world and write about his experiences while doing it. Just another backpacker you might think, but wait – Chris makes almost 50,000$ a year! By his own admission, he spends 90% of his time doing things that he wants to do and 10% of his time doing things to make money. My kind of life!
I am increasingly convinced that I must be self-employed. 9 to 6 is not going to cut it for me. There is too much to see, learn and experience in this world to spend half my day at a cubicle.
I am going to spend the next few months actively contemplating this question. I am not going to wait for the next big idea, instead I am going to focus on doing small things that teach me what I am capable of doing. The big idea is (hopefully!) just a small idea that makes it big!
There is no utopia, no paradise, just a desire to wander. As a wise old man once said:
All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.
Eh, whats up doc? 
Very nice post. Blessed are those who find wonder and enjoyment in their workplace itself! And twice blessed is he who sees wonder in every activity of his life!
Blessed? You said Blessed?!!
I thought ‘blessings’ are a “…means to wield power and subvert & control the minds of
the believing millions by a section of the intelligent few in a
community using the un-impeachable power that the unprovable tenets of
religion give them by way of institutions, codes and books.”
😉
Not all those who wander are lost!
words that never fail to make me feel better about myself!
i particularly like these lines from ‘i sit and think’
“I sit beside the fire and think of all that I have seen,
of meadow-flowers and butterflies in summers that have been;
Of yellow leaves and gossamer in autumns that there were,
with morning mist and silver sun and wind upon my hair.
I sit beside the fire and think of how the world will be
when winter comes without a spring that I shall ever see.
For still there are so many things that I have never seen:
in every wood in every spring there is a different green.”
life really is too short and wonderful to spend it waiting in a tiny room slaving away at finding the next big idea.
i wish you luck with the contemplating. and i hope u’ll share the answer with the rest of us confused souls.. 😉
Oye, I doubt if anything I share will clear up any confusion that other confused souls have! It might worsen it 😉
TUIB,
PS: thanks for the poem, i like it very much!
seconding the last part of Tangled Up in Blue’s comment! 😀
Suyash, you hardly qualify in the ‘confused soul’ category! Grad students are a whole different species!!
Grad students are also people! 😛
jeje, yes yes, of course!
btw, why is your blog silent these days?
Mohit,
Nice post! I like the clarity and the unity of purpose in the post 🙂 I hope you will make progress in this contemplation.
I do not think at this point that true liberation comes neither from sitting in a closed space, or from wandering themselves. It comes from, as Morpeheus would say, freeing your mind…
Thanks unawoken! I agree about freeing the mind.
I was going to end the post with Bob Marley’s “Redemption song” and the line: “…emancipate yourself from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our mind…”
The devil lies in the details tho’ 😉
And you changed your blog title 🙂
woooot, at least someone noticed! yuss, ‘travel, think, explore’ was mighty cheesy but i had been lazy!
your new title reminds me of Stephen King’s “The Shining”
zomg! wat dat!?
new title is an innocent reference to bugs bunny, nothing morbidly fascinating like ‘the shining’ !
About time Mohito! This calls for some discussions with wine! @Tangled up in Blue, thanks for the lines from I sit and think. Like it very much!
Its Mojito with a jota. Discussions over wine need no excuse. Name the place and time and I shall be there!
“You like lamb, Doc?
You don’t? What’s your favorite food?
French fries and ketchup.
l think we can manage that too, Doc.
Come along. Watch your step.
How’d you know we call him Doc?
-Beg your pardon? -You called Danny “Doc” twice.
l did?
We call him Doc sometimes, like in the Bugs Bunny cartoons.
But how did you know?
l guess l heard you call him that.
lt’s possible. But l don’t remember. . .
. . .calling him that since we’ve been with you.
Anyway, he looks like a Doc, doesn’t he?
What’s up, Doc?”