What is there in life if you do not work? There is only sensation, and there are only a few sensations— you cannot live on them. You can only live on work, by work, through work. How can you live with self-respect if you do not do things as well as lies in you?
~ Maria Callas, in an interview in the London Observer, 1970 (via The Writer Who Stayed By William Zinsser)
Notes: Quote via The Hammockpapers. Portrait: Maria Callas Fan Club
I take pride in professionalism. I am willing to do things that other people find ridiculous if I have agreed to appear at a certain festival or school. Once I say yes I don’t do otherwise. I will drive four hours to teach a class and then turn around and drive straight home… I will work under bad circumstances, and I will feel virtuous. Laurel sometimes puts it this way: Rick likes it when it sucks. I can’t address the origin of this particular way of being, the professionalism just is. It makes it easier for me to wake up in the morning, because I know what I have to do… I felt (and feel still) like showing up for class keeps me tethered to the world.
~ Rick Moody, The Long Accomplishment: A Memoir of Hope and Struggle in Matrimony (August 6, 2019)
Photo of Rick Moody via Seven Days
Volume up.
If only we could celebrate and thank all of our teachers with similar enthusiasm. Bravo Boys.
New Zealand High School Boys Honor Retiring Teacher With Moving Haka. Guidance Counsellor John Adams was a teacher for 30 years. (Story here)
Live & Learn 