“I go on working for the same reason that a hen goes on laying eggs.”
I had a hard time analyzing this quote. To be honest, I had no clue why hens even laid eggs, except for to reproduce (which was probably not what the quote meant). Did hens themselves even know why they were laying eggs? I actually googled “why do hens lay eggs” but there were no relevant results. It seems that everyone else is satisfied with the answer being that they just do because they can. I thought and thought for a long duration of time and then it hit me— because they can. If a hen were fertile and capable of laying eggs, why wouldn’t it? Just like the logic behind that, I understood that if I am capable of working, why not work? This quote made me think about a homework assignment a teacher at school gave me in 6th grade. It was not the typical one-night assignment with one task for the student to work on. It was a long sheet of math questions. We could do as many or as little as we wanted (because it was a busy week at school and the teacher was being thoughtful), there was no penalty either way. At first I was set on doing just a few problems, but then after I had completed those, I had nothing else to do. I felt almost uncomfortable just sitting on the couch doing nothing, so I did the rest of the problems. My mindset then was, if I am able to do the work and there is nothing stopping me, why not? There will be a time later in my life when I am unable to do work, and so I might as well work while I can. It seems to me now that the small hen knew a valuable lesson before I did.
The only way to enjoy life is work. Work is much more fun than fun.”
Unlike with the other quote, I understood what this one meant immediately. I instantly thought of last year— a few months after the BP oil spill. This quote resonates with an assignment Mr. Watt assigned me last fall. I was to write an essay on the spill. After I had figured out what were my opinions on the issue and I began to write, I began wanting to spend time working on my writing. The topic was interesting and being able to help the environment made me feel good about myself. After a while, I actually started working on my piece for fun instead of watching TV or going online. The “normal” fun that I had is something I still enjoy, but while writing the essay I felt as if it was not exciting enough. I not only took more pleasure in writing the essay, but also acknowledged the sense of accomplishment that would follow the completion of the piece. That sense of accomplishment just made the process more fun. That was something I would never be able to get if I were just on Facebook.