Book 251 - A Year of Magical Learning

Reflection Title: “I Wish the Boy Was Here” – Don’t Do It Alone!

Book – The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

Book Description: The Old Man and the Sea is one of Hemingway's most enduring works. Told in language of great simplicity and power, it is the story of an old Cuban fisherman, down on his luck, and his supreme ordeal -- a relentless, agonizing battle with a giant marlin far out in the Gulf Stream.

Here Hemingway recasts, in strikingly contemporary style, the classic theme of courage in the face of defeat, of personal triumph won from loss. Written in 1952, this hugely successful novella confirmed his power and presence in the literary world and played a large part in his winning the 1954 Nobel Prize for Literature.

Reflection:

Just like when I read a few novels by Jack Kerouac, something inside of me felt I had to give another great American novelist in Ernest Hemingway a try for some reason. So, I did. I went to the Google machine to ask my question of the most famous Hemingway novel and Google told me that it was a book called The Old Man and The Sea. I thought, let’s give it a try, see what this Hemingway guy is all about, and cross my fingers that I’ll find an interesting lesson in the story.

Surprisingly, or maybe unsurprisingly given how much I don’t seem to love fiction books, I didn’t enjoy it and felt a little let down. I mean, this book basically helped Hemingway win the Noble Prize for Literature, it had to be good…right? What I found was an interesting short story about an epic struggle between an old man and a massive Marlin. Maybe I’m missing something, but that was about it.

Actually, the whole time I kind of felt sorry for the old dude if I’m being honest. He was out at sea all alone, didn’t have enough resources for the job at hand, and was locked in an epic struggle which ultimately turned out no one will ever truly understand because he didn’t even return with anything to prove it happened. That just sucks! I mean, this old dude was in the most epic struggle of his career as a fisherman, and no one is around to help or even see the results as it turns out in the end.

The old man has a young buddy that helps him out while back on shore that he calls, “the boy”. The whole time as he is enduring this epic struggle with the fish he keeps saying, “I wish the boy were here as he would know what to do”.

He wishes the boy was there because life sucks when you do it alone. Who cares what epic struggles you overcome if you do it by yourself? What’s the point of doing anything in this life if no one is around to do it with is all I could think?

This thought immediately reminded me of something similar that my ClubAny cofounder, Trieu, says all the time as well. Paraphrasing him, “meaningful work is great, but if it no one is around to see it, use it, or do anything with it than what’s the point?” Meaningful work is incredibly rewarding, but it is only one half of the happiness hypothesis. The other half, and equally as important, is meaningful relationships. The boy is the old man’s meaningful relationship. The boy cares about the old man. The boy loves to fish the old man. If the boy had been there, that whole epic ordeal would have been so different. Meaningful relationships have the power to change the story from one of a sad and lonely ordeal to one of joy, happiness, and adventure.

As I was about 70 reflections into this new writing project that I began calling A Year of Magical Learning, I started to feel the similar to the old man. I was writing all this great content but had no one to share it with. It was killing me. I was really proud of some of the thoughts that was coming out of my head, but sadly only my computer got to see them each day. Every once in a while, during our nightly ClubAny meeting as we were discussing something I would blurt out, “Man, I was just writing about something like that recently. I really want to share this one with you.” Trieu said share away and I was so excited. We had a great chat, and it was a blast. This happened a few more times over the next few weeks. I would share my reflection, he would listen, share his thoughts, we discussed, and it was so much fun. Eventually, I came to him with a great idea of going through this whole series, discussing it, and turning it into a podcast discussion to share with others. He loved it and we decided to give it a try.

So far, we are now 107 discussion recordings into this journey together and it has made this process so much more rewarding to do it with someone else. We’ve been having a blast doing it and have no plans to stop until we turn all 365 into these joint discussions. I honestly can’t imagine YOML now without Trieu being a part of it. His involvement turned this project from just fulfilling meaningful work to something that brings me happiness. That is the power of meaningful relationships.

Just like the old man, I discovered that doing meaningful work is beyond fulfilling, but we all need someone to share it with or else…what’s the point?

DON’T DO IT ALONE!

Question: Who do you look forward to sharing your meaningful work with?

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Links:

What is The Year of Magical Learning? - An Introduction

YOML Podcast Discussion - Coming Soon

YOML Bookstore - The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway