Here's what I think, after spending last night being really happily absorbed in working on my songs/arrangements/act...I think: Work is important. Even if you're not very good at it.But just finding something, anything,. you love doing, doing it for long enough to do it well enough so it pleases you...it's good, but more, it's necessary. I'm not saying I'm good at what I love doing, just that it gives me a window to lean out of and look at the world from. That's all.
-The reason I'm thinking about this is because I've noticed that folks who don't have this--who haven't said , for instance,"I love birdhouses and I'm going to build a truly lovely one!", or "I love baking, therefore I'm going to perfect my Better-Than-Sex-Cake till it actually IS better than sex!", etc--don't have time or energy for the trouble people can otherwise find for themselves.
It's just lately I've been fretting over some of my friends. I have several really bright friends who have Terrible Relationships instead of work. Drama, Big Pointless Emotions, usually with people who simply aren't interesting enough to warrant all that expenditure of energy (actually, is ANYbody interesting enough to warrant Relationship Drama?) It feels like work. It takes up the place where work wants to be, in their psyches, I think.
I know [knew--some have died] some very smart folks who have Drug Problems..Drugs can sure SEEM like work, what with the buying it, and then fiddling with paraphernalia and... whatever else it is people do with drugs, I'm at a bit of a loss here. -But that whole mishegas takes up the place where work wants to be,in one's psyche, i think. Again.
I'm not saying anything stupendous here. Just that I know a lot of folks who, when they gave up drugs, or bad relationship dramas, etc, suddenly gotten REALLY successful, because they used their energies on something they actually enjoyed and that wound up being a Good Thing. -And by "suuccessful", I don't mean the Trumpian definition, but the faux-Emersonian definition, written by someone's grandmother in 1905 but none the worse for that:

To laugh often and love much; to win the respect of intelligent persons and the affection of children; to earn the approbation of honest citizens and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to give of one’s self; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to have played and laughed with enthusiasm and sung with exultation; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived—this is to have succeeded.

And yes, it's soppy. Yes, it was probably voted "most likely to be on an inspirational fridge magnet"... so let's throw in a Santayana quote while we're at it, huh?:

To be happy, you must have taken the measure of your powers, tasted the fruits of your passion, and learned your place in the world.

Speaking for myself, I'm happier not having Big Personal Dramas. (Anymore. Have had more than my share. In fact, most of my best learning has come from being a complete idiot, often.)

But I do like... work. It feels good to burrow down into one's best self and do something with it. And, in a moment where I'm not sure what's going on with my life in a lot of ways, I can at least do the dishes and sing a song I wrote and think "I made that up!" and smile.

And here's a poem. Night, all. Love.

Ithaka  by CP Cavafy

As you set out for Ithaka
hope your road is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
angry Poseidon - don't be afraid of them:
you'll never find things like that one on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
wild Poseidon - you won't encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.

Hope your road is a long one.
May there be many summer mornings when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you enter harbours you're seeing for the first time;
may you stop at Phoenician trading stations
to buy fine things,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
sensual perfumes of every kind -
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
and may you visit many Egyptian cities
to learn and go on learning from their scholars.

Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you're destined for.
But don't hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you're old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you've gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.

Ithaka gave you the marvellous journey.
Without her you wouldn't have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.
And if you find her poor, Ithaka won't have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you'll have understood by then what these Ithakas mean