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I have a strong sense of responsibility for the ones I love which keeps me working.
I have a deep feeling that I can do whatever needs doing and endure anything to get it done. I think this comes from a Time-Life coffee table book on WWII that my parents had and I used to look through as a kid in the 1960s. It had black-and-white photos (as I recall) of the prisoners in Nazi camps just before their liberation. Some nude with hands over their privates, completely emaciated. Others in the striped prison garb. Mass graves and stacks of bodies. It made a powerful impression on me (not Jewish, by the way) that if they could endure and live, not knowing whether they would ever get out and certainly knowing the fate of many fellow captives, then I could get through the relative trivialities in my own life and career.
After that I just missed being drafted for Vietnam and never served. But I admire those who did serve and again often think if they could endure their tours, often in some pretty inhospitable places, then I can do what I need to as well.
In a way, staying focused and motivated for me honors both.
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