At the beginning of the pandemic, the writer Dan Brown went to film sets and some other places, and as a result, he contracted COVID-19. Fortunately, he recovered three days later. Hearing this news, I was deeply astonished by the speed of Dan Brown's recovery. I was quite curious why he didn't disclose his treatment plan to benefit the general public who were suffering a lot from the pandemic until I read the information disclosed by his ex-wife: "For years, Dan Brown had a secret extramarital affair with a Dutch horse trainer and bought her many valuable things, including a Friesian horse worth $340,000."
Leaving aside the moral aspect for the moment, I suddenly realized that Dan Brown, who was rather generous to his mistress, must have a solid financial foundation. After contracting COVID-19 this time, it must be because he spent a large amount of money and obtained extremely high-quality medical services that were beyond the reach of ordinary people that he was able to fully recover in just three days.
Where did Dan Brown's money come from? He is a best-selling author. Forbes magazine estimated that his annual income reached $76 million, and Time magazine estimated that he earned $25 million just from his work "The Da Vinci Code". Even so, he still worked diligently. After recovering from COVID-19, he got up at 4 o'clock every morning to write scripts and novels. So, in a certain sense, the money brought by work saved Dan Brown's life and enabled him to recover at a rocket-like speed. Using work remuneration to obtain high-quality medical treatment and thus prolong life is the first purpose of my work.
After his trip to Sakhalin, Anton Chekhov realized that as a writer, what he needed was not "absolute freedom", but "to live among people", to have "social and political life, even just a little bit". Undoubtedly, work can fulfill Chekhov's wish. In fact, Chekhov, who practiced medicine while engaging in literary creation, also gained spiritual growth and a lot of writing materials by working and moving among patients in the hospital. Lazy as I am, if there were no pressure and motivation from work, I would probably hide at home like a mole, no longer take good care of my skin and appearance, and would also neglect to pay attention to fashion trends and my own growth and improvement. What's more, I would try my best to have as little interaction with people and society as possible. Whenever I think of this pale and gloomy picture and then compare it with my energetic and lively appearance in the office, interacting enthusiastically with colleagues, I can't help but be grateful to work for providing me with the opportunity to float among people and society and supplying me with fresh oxygen. This is the second purpose of my work.
A week after putting her daughter Quintana's ashes into the marble wall of St. John's, the American writer Joan Didion flew to Boston, Dallas, and Minneapolis, busy promoting her new book. Then, she flew to Washington, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Denver, Seattle, Chicago, Toronto... still for work. Next, she realized that just hurrying back and forth at the airport was not enough and that she had to work harder. So she planned to adapt her new book into a play to be performed on Broadway. During the working period, "the bell doesn't necessarily ring, the door isn't necessarily locked, the answers to questions are open-ended, and the story hasn't ended yet." Didion was trying to use work to forget the pain brought by death. As Alain de Botton said, "The existence of work is to make us stop thinking about the futility of life and the inevitability of death." To some extent, shielding the uncertainty and pain in life is the third purpose of my work.
(Excerpted by Erya from Sanlian Life Weekly)