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CAMPBELL: Remember the last line [of Babbitt]? "I
have never done the thing that I wanted to in all my life." That is a man who
never followed his bliss. Well, I actually heard that line when I was teaching
at Sarah Lawrence. Before I was married, I used to eat out in the restaurants of
town for my lunch and dinners. Thursday night was the maid's night off in
Bronxville, so that many of the families were out in restaurants. One fine
evening I was in my favorite restaurant there, and at the next table there was a
father, a mother, and a scrawny boy about twelve years old. The father said to
the boy, "Drink your tomato juice."And the boy said, "I don't want to." Then the
father, with a louder voice, said, "Drink your tomato juice." And the mother
said, "Don't make him do what he doesn't want to do." The father looked at her
and said, "He can't go through life doing what he wants to do. If he does only
what he wants to do, he'll be dead. Look at me. I've never done a thing I wanted
to in all my life." And I thought, "My God, there's Babbitt incarnate!" That's
the man who never followed his bliss. You may have a success in life, but then
just think of it-what kind of life was it? What good was it-you've never done
the thing you wanted to do in all your life. I always tell my students, go where your body and soul want to go.
When you have the feeling, then stay with it, and don't let anyone throw you
off.
MOYERS: What happens when you follow your bliss?
CAMPBELL: You come to bliss.
Babbitt is one of Lewis’s best-known novels and was influential in the decision to award him the Nobel Prize in literature in 1930.
"Babbitt" - a business or professional person who unthinkingly conforms to middle-class standards".
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