A Greek Who Believes Leisure is Greece's National Sport
- and the Only Thing Greeks Are Good At!
Dimitris Floridis of Maroussi, Attiki, in Greece wrote to let me know his thoughts about work
after reading The Joy of
Not Working.
|
Cover of Greek Edition of
The Joy of
Not Working
Dear Mr. Zelinski,
I felt like contacting you after having read your book
The Joy of Not Working. Well, I couldn't agree more
with most of the material in the book.
It seems like we've transformed this planet to a planet of slaves. They
train us in schools to become slaves and then they suck us dry in the "war"king
environment.
I was a workaholic myself starting from school because that was the
mentality imposed upon me. That, later in my life started to affect my health.
After having worked for a decade for the Greek Power Corporation I am
currently in the process of leaving it.
I am lucky enough to have secured the basics for my survival for the
rest of my days and hopefully I won't have to work a single day, at least not in the
classic sense of the word.
I do agree that there's a multitude of things to do on this planet but
the only thing people are after is money.
Especially in the U.S., workaholism and chasing money seem to be the
national sports. Fortunately, things are changing - slowly yes - but they are
changing.
Someday you should visit Greece where leisure is our national sport and
about the only thing we are good at.
Greece is the ideal place to have a good time. Why not have a
good life with not so much money?
Respectfully,
Dimitris Floridis
|
Another Letter from a Reader in Greece
Ilia Kothra sent me this e-mail from Greece in January 2005, about a week after the tsunamis hit Asia.
Apparently, she read the Greek edition of The Joy of Not
Working.
|
Hello Ernie,
It's a sunny Sunday in Athens and I am enjoying my coffee on the balcony.
I want to send a lot of thanks to you for being the answer to my fears
about money, jobs, and retirement.
In this crazy world, in which practically everyone kills himself trying to keep
useless jobs, you are teaching us important
life lessons.
Ernie, I worked in a big, big company in Greece, but I recently opened my own
shop.
Guess what? The stress doesn't kill me anymore.
I have to do thousands of things every day, but in I still spend time on the
beach, read magazines, visit museums, etc.
What happened in Asia - liked all the disasters - teach us that our lives are
soooooooooo short.
Keep up the good work.
Ilia Kothra - Greece
|
Quotes about Leisure That May Apply to Greece
Socrates called leisure "the most valuable of possessions," emphasizing that it is the cultivation
of the mind for the purpose of fostering and developing virtue.
On that note here are some inspirational quotes about leisure to put work in proper perspective:
A lot of us are working harder than we want, at things we don't like to do. Why? It
figures! In order to afford the sort of existence we don't care to live.
- Bradford Angier
Viva la retirement, grab it by the
horns and go for it.
- Cheryl Marland
And what of the opportunity to retire to the society of the best men, and to select some model by
which we may direct our own lives? But we can do this only in leisure.
- Seneca, On Leisure
We give up leisure in order that we may have leisure, just as we
go
to war in order that we may have peace.
- Aristotle
Men of lofty genius are most active when they are doing the least
work.
- Leonardo da Vinci
He enjoys true leisure who has time to improve his soul's estate.
- Henry David Thoreau
Leisure consists in all those virtuous activities by which a man grows morally,
intellectually, and spiritually. It is that which makes a life worth living.
- Cicero
What counts is not the number of hours you put in, but how much you
put in the hours.
- Unknown wise person
For the record, my book How to Retire Happy,
Wild, and Free has also been published in Greek and in 9 other languages.
COPYRIGHT ©
2020 by Ernie J. Zelinski
Owner of VIP
BOOKS
and Author of the World's
Best Retirement
Book
All Rights Reserved
| 