It is not work that kills men; it is worry.
Work is healthy; you can hardly put more upon a man than he can bear.
Worry is rust upon the blade.
It is not the revolution that
destroys the machinery, but the friction.
– Henry Ward Beecher
There’s a lot of what Beecher had to say that I would disagree with, but I’m pretty sure the old preacher was onto something when he penned those lines.
I was scrolling through a web site occupied by Michael Paul Samson, an interesting and mercurial Newfoundlander with a homestead on a beautiful slice of north country heaven he calls “The Bight.” The site is not regularly maintained, which makes it difficult for me to do my vicarious living while reading it, but what is there is good.
Samson was the second person to kayak around Newfoundland, and the only Newfoundlander to do so (as far as I know.) He made the trip a couple of years before I did and I heard his name a few times as I made my way around in 2000.
I found the Beecher quote in one of his blog entries. It made me wonder about all the possible reasons I am awake at 3:00 am so often. It’s no secret that I’m a worrier.