A
Greek Who Believes Leisure is Greece's National Sport - and the
Only Thing Greeks Are Good At!
Dimitris Floridis of Maroussi, Attiki, in
Greece wrote to let me know his thoughts about work
after reading
The Joy of Not
Working.
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Cover
of Greek Edition of
The Joy of Not
Working
Dear Mr.
Zelinski,
I felt like
contacting you after having read
your book
The Joy of Not
Working.
Well, I couldn't agree more with
most of the material in the
book.
It seems like we've
transformed this planet to a
planet of slaves. They train us
in schools to become slaves and
then they suck us dry in the
"war"king environment.
I was a workaholic
myself starting from school
because that was the mentality
imposed upon me. That, later in
my life started to affect my
health.
After having worked
for a decade for the Greek Power
Corporation I am currently in
the process of leaving it.
I am lucky enough
to have secured the basics for
my survival for the rest of my
days and hopefully I won't have
to work a single day, at least
not in the classic sense of the
word.
I do agree that
there's a multitude of things to
do on this planet but the only
thing people are after is
money.
Especially in the
U.S., workaholism and chasing
money seem to be the national
sports. Fortunately, things are
changing - slowly yes - but they
are changing.
Someday you
should visit
Greece where
leisure is our national
sport and about the only thing we
are good at.
Greece is the ideal
place to have a good time. Why
not have a good
life with not so
much money?
Respectfully,
Dimitris
Floridis
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Another Letter from a Reader in
Greece
Ilia Kothra sent me this e-mail from Greece in
January 2005, about a week after the tsunamis hit Asia.
Apparently, she read the Greek edition of
The Joy of Not
Working.
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Hello Ernie,
It's a sunny Sunday in Athens and
I am enjoying my coffee on the
balcony.
I want to send a lot of thanks to
you for being the answer to my fears
about money,
jobs, and
retirement.
In this crazy world, in which
practically everyone kills himself trying
to keep useless jobs, you are teaching us
important life
lessons.
Ernie, I worked in a big, big
company in Greece, but I recently opened my
own shop.
Guess what? The stress doesn't
kill me anymore.
I have to do thousands of things
every day, but in I still spend time on
the beach, read
magazines, visit museums,
etc.
What happened in Asia -
liked all the disasters - teach us that our
lives are soooooooooo short.
Keep up the good
work.
Ilia Kothra - Greece
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Quotes about Leisure That May Apply
to Greece
Socrates called leisure "the most valuable of
possessions," emphasizing that it is the cultivation of the
mind for the purpose of fostering and developing virtue.
On that note here are some inspirational
quotes about leisure to put work in proper
perspective:
A lot of us are working harder than
we want, at things we don't like to do. Why? It
figures! In order to afford the sort of existence
we don't care to live.
- Bradford Angier
Viva
la retirement, grab it by the horns
and go for it.
- Cheryl Marland
And what of the opportunity to retire to the
society of the best men, and to select some model
by which we may direct our own lives? But we can do
this only in leisure.
- Seneca, On Leisure
We give up leisure
in order that we may have leisure, just as we
go
to war in order that we may have peace.
- Aristotle
Men of lofty genius are most active when they
are doing the least
work.
- Leonardo da Vinci
He enjoys true leisure who has time
to improve his soul's estate.
- Henry David Thoreau
Leisure consists in all those
virtuous activities by which a man grows
morally, intellectually, and spiritually. It is
that which makes a life worth living.
- Cicero
What counts is not the number of hours you put
in, but how much you
put in the hours.
- Unknown wise person
For the record, my book
How to Retire Happy, Wild, and
Free has also been published in
Greek.
COPYRIGHT ©
2010 by Ernie J.
Zelinski
Owner of VIP
BOOKS
and Author of the
World's Best Retirement
Book
All Rights
Reserved
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