Choices

I'm currently reading Walden, by Henry Thoreau, and that makes me reflect a lot about choices we make in life.

Thoreau says "A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone" and says he learned the walker is the fastest traveler. Whereas a working man works the whole day and pays the train to arrive somewhere else the next day, the walker walks the path, saves the ticket money and gains the experience.

On that same line, I watched a TV show last weekend called Troca de Família (Family Swap), at Record channel, where the Mum of a rich family swaps places with the Mum of a poor family for a week. The kids of the poor family were simple and fearless and the Dad took the new Mum for a boat trip, as he was friends with the boat owner. At some point he declared: "while other people work endlessly to make money to enjoy life, I enjoy life like a millionaire without stressing about the money".

I think these stories reaffirm that we always have a choice, and working long hours is one of them. If at some the activity becomes meaningless, it's much better to leave, enjoy the richness of possessing little and "live the life we have imagined".