I'm really happy to see Diana happy in her return to the workforce after five years. I think her decision to be a stay-at-home mom in Simon's early years was totally the right decision, and since we could afford it, there weren't many downsides to doing so. I think it's awesome that she got back into theater as well, even if it's the other side of the house. She's had a lot of success very quickly, and has been recognized for it.
In an ideal world, we all take pride in what we do. It's also important to derive some pride from your work. It's a subtle but important reversal. For better or worse, we do place some value on our work in the bigger context of our lives. That's probably not an entirely bad thing (it certainly was the first time I got laid-off back in 2001, especially for my self-esteem). I think it feels good when you can think, "I do this, I'm really f'ing good at it, and other people acknowledge that." You shouldn't be arrogant about it, but I think it's OK to feel that to an extent.
I guess there's no getting around it, that we'll always try to find the balance between working to live and living to work. The two are interconnected. For me, accepting this is hard, because I spent a lot of time in the work equivalent of bad relationships... failing companies, ethically questionable companies and outright incompetent companies. I've had two good years now of non-suck (changing jobs only because the first was a finite contract gig). It's a weird place to be proud of your work and the company you work for, but I sure hope it lasts.
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