James Doolittle

I was perusing my bloglines when I came across a quote in my Woodmoor Village Zendo feed:

If the world were merely seductive, that would be easy. If it were merely challenging, that would be no problem. But I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world, and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.

- E. B. White

I read this quote in a February 16th post by Nacho, and I thought, hey–that’s true.  As I thought about it more, however, it occured to me that such general statements as this one, wherein all motivation and desire is lumped into one or two categories, make life seem that simple.  That there are only these two opposing forces, and that all of our actions are out of either one or the other.  The more I think about it, I wish this quote were true.  I wish that was all that’s on my mind–whether I should try to improve life or enjoy it–but there’s more on the table than just that.  I understand how someone could argue that all my other priorities stem from these two principals, but it just doesn’t ring true for me.  What do you think about the quote?