Many biblical verses are like inkblot tests, revealing more about us than about the text in question.
Harold S. KushnerRead
In all my years of counselling those near death, I've yet to hear anyone say they wish they had spent more time at the office
Interpretation
People tend to regret not spending more time with loved ones than working.
This quote highlights a common reflection among individuals approaching the end of their lives: they often wish they had prioritized their personal relationships and experiences over work commitments. Harold S. Kushner emphasizes the importance of living a life filled with meaningful connections, suggesting that time spent with family and friends is ultimately more fulfilling than time spent in the pursuit of professional success.
In practice
In a speech about work-life balance during a company retreat.
Many biblical verses are like inkblot tests, revealing more about us than about the text in question.
I am quite confident that the most important part of a human being is not his physical body but his nonphysical essence, which some people call soul and others, personality... The nonphysical part cannot die and cannot decay because it's not physical.
That is why we have to make room in our lives for people who may sometimes disappoint or exasperate us. If we hold our friends to a standard of perfection, or if they do that to us, we will end up far lonelier than we want to be.
Pain is a part of being alive, and we need to learn that. Pain does not last forever, nor is it necessarily unbeatable, and we need to be taught that.
Our souls are not hungry for fame, comfort, wealth, or power. Our souls are hungry for meaning, for the sense that we have figured out how to live so that our lives matter.
We cannot live without the knowledge that someone cares about us.
You write your life story by the choices you make.
There are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.
Cancer has given me a dose of humility. I'm much more empathetic. It's a club I would rather not have joined, but it is a club.
We do survive every moment, after all, except the last one.
Life holds only one tragedy, ultimately: not to have been a saint.
Hey, look at this!" He holds up a glistening, perfect pearl about the size of a pea. "You know, if you put enough pressure on coal it turns to pearls," he says earnestly to Finnick. "No, it doesn't," says Finnick dismissively. But I crack up, remembering that's how a clueless Effie Trinket presented us to the people of the Capitol last year, before anyone knew us. As coal pressured into pearls by our weighty existence. Beauty that arose out of pain.
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