The 'working poor,' as they are approvingly termed, are in fact the major philanthropists of our society.
Barbara EhrenreichRead
For the millions of us who live glued to computer keyboards at work and TV monitors at home, food may be more than entertainment. It may be the only sensual experience left.
Interpretation
Food is often the only pleasurable experience we have in our technology-dominated lives.
In this quote, Barbara Ehrenreich highlights the diminishing sensual experiences in our modern lives, as so many people are occupied with screens at work and home. She suggests that for many, food takes on a heightened significance, becoming a primary source of pleasure and enjoyment in an otherwise monotonous existence influenced by technology.
In practice
In a discussion about the impact of technology on daily life.
The 'working poor,' as they are approvingly termed, are in fact the major philanthropists of our society.
The secret of the truly successful, I believe, is that they learned very early in life how not to be busy. They saw through that adage, repeated to me so often in childhood, that anything worth doing is worth doing well. The truth is, many things are worth doing only in the most slovenly, halfhearted fashion possible, and many other things are not worth doing at all.
From the point of view of the pharmaceutical industry, the AIDS problem has already been solved. After all, we already have a drug which can be sold at the incredible price of $8,000 an annual dose, and which has the added virtue of not diminishing the market by actually curing anyone.
Well I do think there are people who are habitually negative and depressed and take the opposite approach because they imagine the worst, and their minds become dominated by that. They let their own emotions and expectations transform their perceptions of the world.
Some of us still get all weepy when we think about the Gaia Hypothesis, the idea that earth is a big furry goddess-creature who resembles everybody's mom in that she knows what's best for us. But if you look at the historical record - Krakatoa, Mt. Vesuvius, Hurricane Charley, poison ivy, and so forth down the ages - you have to ask yourself: Whose side is she on, anyway?
I would never call myself a cancer survivor because I think it devalues those who do not survive. There's this whole mythology that people bravely battle their cancer and then they become survivors. Well, the ones who don't survive may be just as brave, you know, just as courageous, wonderful people.
I have the choice of being constantly active and happy or introspectively passive and sad. Or I can go mad by ricocheting in between.
One of the shocks of a 50th birthday is realizing the fundamental fact that your youth is irrevocably over.
A ruined man fell from her hands like a ripe fruit, to lie rotting on the ground.
Growing up is scary because it happens without you knowing it.
Don't cry, I'm sorry to have deceived you so much, but that's how life is.
All life events are formative. All contribute to what we become, year by year, as we go on growing. As my friend the poet Kenneth Koch once said, You aren't just the age you are. You are all the ages you ever have been!
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