Recall chapter 2 of Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, the scene when Tom cleverly hoodwinks the neighborhood children into doing his despised chore of whitewashing a 90-foot-long, 9-foot-high fence on a perfect Saturday morning. Tom might not have had the polish of an academic, but he surely knew something special about the human condition. As Twain concludes at the end of the chapter:
If he had been a great and wise philosopher, like the writer of this book, he would have comprehended that Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do, and that Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do.
I suppose this truth applies to all of us. The feeling that work is pleasurable makes it unlike the conventional attitude toward work. If we like what we do, we do not mind it at all. Do you find yourself drawn to tasks that others try to avoid? (For me, such a pleasurable job is mowing the lawn because I use that time to think freely.) When we find joy in our tasks, when we embrace them with the enthusiasm of a child at play, we discover that work is but a perception. The key lies in our ability to find delight in the process. We transcend the mundane and engage in the essence of play, turning every brushstroke into a celebration of life's endless possibilities.
