Work like you don’t need the money
Love like you’ve never been hurt
Dance like nobody’s watching
Sing like nobody’s listening
Live like it’s Heaven on Earth
William Purkey
When I first read this (and there are many variations of it), my attention was caught by the line about singing.
My immediate reaction was that it was a call for hedonistic living without regard for the consequences on others. I’m laughing as I write this because I realise that was purely my own stuff. In particular it brought back some painful memories of feedback I received about my singing having an unpleasant effect on the listener. Now I’m wondering if my singing would have had that effect if I’d followed the advice and sang like nobody was listening!
There’s two things I particularly like about this ‘poem’.
1 Full of optimism
At first glance it appears to be one of those ‘feel-good-but-rather-naive-and-unrealistic’ sayings written by an optimist for other optimists.
One thing I like to do to test sayings like this is to state it in the opposite and see what happens. If I have a little fun with this then it might become:
Work like you are desperate for the money
Love like you’re sure you will be hurt again
Dance like everyone’s watching and laughing at you
Sing like everyone’s listening and rolling their eyes
Live like it’s Hell on Earth
I know which version I prefer!
2 Full of life
It picks out four activities I consider essential to the human experience.
Working – Loving – Singing – Dancing
I don’t know if the author meant these as the most important elements of living but I’d be hard pressed to choose better ones.
Which activities would you choose for your ‘top 4′ elements of living?
