Get off the train

Yet another post inspired by the today's class lecture. Here's the quote:

...we had a visiting professor here. He told a story about his wife who went to work every day for ten years. This was in Illinois, over these lousy roads, to a lousy job that she hated. She was away from her family and just didn’t like the whole thing.

But after ten years, she finally said, "Wait a minute! I don’t have to do this! It’s not a law! Nobody’s making me do it!" And yet we ought to have this idea that you know we’re on this train and we can’t get off, and this is the only direction that it’s going, and somebody else’s life is going to be flashing before our eyes because we’ve got to stop the train and get off and say, "Wait! I don’t have to do this. You know, I’m in control."

But the problem is, it's not that easy. You can't just say "I don't have to do this." Because some of us do have to earn a living. Some of us can't exit one job unless we can get another job. And it's not worth doing if the new job is going to be even worse than the old job.