The Creative Energy of Work

Since learning Friday that I am to teach an online course beginning Wednesday, I have been preparing with fervor. Curiously, I am not tired (though I admit to moments of panic). Glued to my computer chair, I have been accessing, reading, downloading, composing, revising, instant messaging, editing, uploading -- virtually nonstop. Instead of feeling tired, I am invigorated. Some months ago, a gentleman asked, "Why do you work?" I answered, "To make money to live." He told me I was wrong. "No," he said, "you work because it feeds the mind."

At this moment, my mind gorges on meaningful work in a state of such creative excitement and energy that it swirls with pleasure, bursting with images and ideas like colored bits of glass sliding momentarily into kaleidoscopic view and then shattering, only to re-emerge in ever-changing designs of thought.