159 lines
9.3 KiB
HTML
159 lines
9.3 KiB
HTML
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<article>
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<p className="align-right date">
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April 22, 1958<br />
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57 Perry Street<br />
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New York City<br />
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</p>
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<p>Dear Hume,</p>
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<p>
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You ask advice: ah, what a very human and very dangerous thing to do! For to give advice
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to a man who asks what to do with his life implies something very close to egomania. To
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presume to point a man to the right and ultimate goal—to point with a trembling
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finger in the RIGHT direction is something only a fool would take upon himself.
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</p>
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<p>
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I am not a fool, but I respect your sincerity in asking my
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advice. I ask you though, in listening to what I say, to remember that all advice can
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only be a product of the man who gives it. What is truth to one may be a disaster to
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another. I do not see life through your eyes, nor you through mine. If I were to attempt
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to give you
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<i>specific</i> advice, it would be too much like the blind leading the blind.
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</p>
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<p className="align-center">
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<i>
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"To be, or not to be: that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to
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suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of
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troubles..."
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</i>
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<br />
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(Shakespeare)
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</p>
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<p>
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And indeed, that IS the question: whether to float with the tide, or to swim for a goal.
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It is a choice we must all make consciously or unconsciously at one time in our lives.
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So few people understand this! Think of any decision you've ever made which had a
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bearing on your future: I may be wrong, but I don't see how it could have been anything
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but a choice however indirect—between the two things I've mentioned: the floating
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or the swimming.
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</p>
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<p>
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But why not float if you have no goal? That is another question.
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It is unquestionably better to enjoy the floating than to swim in uncertainty. So how
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does a man find a goal? Not a castle in the stars, but a real and tangible thing. How
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can a man be sure he's not after the "big rock candy mountain," the enticing sugar-candy
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goal that has little taste and no substance?
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</p>
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<p>
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The answer—and, in a sense, the tragedy of life—is
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that we seek to understand the goal and not the man. We set up a goal which demands of
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us certain things: and we do these things. We adjust to the demands of a concept which
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CANNOT be valid. When you were young, let us say that you wanted to be a fireman. I feel
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reasonably safe in saying that you no longer want to be a fireman. Why? Because your
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perspective has changed. It's not the fireman who has changed, but you. Every man is the
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sum total of his reactions to experience. As your experiences differ and multiply, you
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become a different man, and hence your perspective changes. This goes on and on. Every
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reaction is a learning process; every significant experience alters your perspective.
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</p>
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<p>
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So it would seem foolish, would it not, to adjust our lives to
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the demands of a goal we see from a different angle every day? How could we ever hope to
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accomplish anything other than galloping neurosis?
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</p>
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<p>
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The answer, then, must not deal with goals at all, or not with
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tangible goals, anyway. It would take reams of paper to develop this subject to
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fulfillment. God only knows how many books have been written on "the meaning of man" and
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that sort of thing, and god only knows how many people have pondered the subject. (I use
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the term "god only knows" purely as an expression.) There's very little sense in my
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trying to give it up to you in the proverbial nutshell, because I'm the first to admit
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my absolute lack of qualifications for reducing the meaning of life to one or two
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paragraphs.
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</p>
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<p>
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I'm going to steer clear of the word "existentialism," but you
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might keep it in mind as a key of sorts. You might also try something called
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<i>Being and Nothingness</i> by Jean-Paul Sartre, and another little thing called
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<i>Existentialism: From Dostoyevsky to Sartre.</i> These are merely suggestions. If
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you're genuinely statisfied with what you are and what you're doing, then give those
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books a wide berth. (Let sleeping dogs lie.) But back to the answer. As I said, to put
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our faith in tangible goals would seem to be, at best, unwise. So we do not strive to be
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firemen, we do not strive to be bankers, nor policemen, nor doctors. WE STRIVE TO BE
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OURSELVES.
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</p>
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<p>
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But don't misunderstand me. I don't mean that we can't BE
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firemen, bankers, or doctors—but that we must make the goal conform to the
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individual, rather than make the individual conform to the goal. In every man, heredity
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and environment have combined to produce a creature of certain abilities and
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desires—including a deeply ingrained need to function in such a way that his life
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will be MEANINGFUL. A man has to BE something; he has to matter.
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</p>
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<p>
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As I see it then, the formula runs something like this: a man
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must choose a path which will let his ABILITIES function at maximum efficiency toward
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the gratification of his DESIRES. In doing this, he is fulfilling a need (giving himself
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identity by functioning in a set pattern toward a set goal) he avoids frustrating his
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potential (choosing a path which puts no limit on his self-development), and he avoids
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the terror of seeing his goal wilt or lose its charm as he draws closer to it (rather
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than bending himself to meet the demands of that which he seeks, he has bent his goal to
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conform to his own abilities and desires).
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</p>
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<p>
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In short, he has not dedicated his life to reaching a
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pre-defined goal, but he has rather chosen a way of like he KNOWS he will enjoy. The
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goal is absolutely secondary: it is the
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<i>functioning toward the goal</i> which is important. And it seems almost ridiculous to
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say that a man MUST function in a pattern of his own choosing; for to let another man
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define your own goals is to give up one of the most meaningful aspects of life—the
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definitive act of will which makes a man an individual.
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</p>
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<p>
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Let's assume that you think you have a choice of eight paths to
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follow (all pre-defined paths, of course). And let's assume that you can't see any real
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purpose in any of the eight. Then—and here is the essence of all I've
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said—you MUST FIND A NINTH PATH.
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</p>
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<p>
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Naturally, it isn't as easy as it sounds. you've lived a
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relatively narrow life, a vertical rather than a horizontal existence. So it isn't any
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too difficult to understand why you seem to feel the way you do. But a man who
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procrastinates in his CHOOSING will inevitably have his choice made for him by
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circumstance.
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</p>
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<p>
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So if you now number yourself among the disenchanted, then you
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have no choice but to accept things as they are, or to seriously seek something else.
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But beware of looking for
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<i>goals</i>: look for a way of life. Decide how you want to live and then see what you
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can do to make a living WITHIN that way of life. But you say, "I don't know where to
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look; I don't know what to look for."
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</p>
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<p>
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And there's the crux. Is it worth giving up what I have to look
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for something better? I don't know—is it? Who can make that decision but you? But
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even by DECIDING TO LOOK, you go a long way toward making the choice.
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</p>
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<p>
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If I don't call this to a halt, I'm going to find myself writing
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a book. I hope it's not as confusing as it looks at first glance. Keep in mind, of
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course, that this is MY WAY of looking at things. I happen to think that it's pretty
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generally applicable, but you may not. Each of us has to create our own credo—this
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merely happens to be mine.
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</p>
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<p>
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If any part of it doesn't seem to make sense, by all means call
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it to my attention. I'm not trying to send you out "on the road" in search of Valhalla,
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but merely pointing out that it is not necessary to accept the choices handed down to
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you by life as you know it. There is more to it than that—no one HAS to do
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something he doesn't want to do for the rest of his life. But then again, if that's what
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you wind up doing, by all means convince yourself that you HAD to do it. You'll have
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lots of company.
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</p>
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<br />
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<p> And that's it for now. Until I hear from you again, I remain,</p>
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<p className="align-right">
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your friend...<br />
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Hunter
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</p>
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</article>
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