Master in the art of living

“A master in the art of living draws no sharp distinction between work and play; labor and leisure; mind and body; education and recreation. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence through whatever he is doing, and leaves others to determine whether he is working or playing. To himself, he always appears to be doing both.” Minister and philosopher Lawrence Pearsall Jacks, on living an aligned life (Education Through Recreation, 1932 — via James Clear’s newsletter) The fluidity implied in this quote hit me hard. We spend so much energy negotiating the work-life trade-off, drawing the line in the right place, when the master that Lawrence Pearsall Jacks describes simply stops drawing the line. It is one I’ll be thinking about and writing about for a while.