Frank McCourt, R.I.P. - "I was put on this earth to write."

Everybody says follow your dream, or Joseph Campbell would say, "Follow your bliss." You have to. If it's deep enough, and authentic and profound and genuine, that's where you have to go. If you want to put on the collar of a clergyman, go and put it on. If you want to be a barefooted monk in the Himalayas, that's what you have to do. If you want to be a housewife, that's what you have to do. Because nature -- I know, I found out eventually why I was put on this earth. I was put on this earth to write. And as Thomas Carlyle said, "Happy is the man who has found his work." So I'm happy, and I hope everybody else finds that, too. - Frank McCourt, teacher & author, August 19, 1930 - July 19, 2009