From the movie ‘Being Flynn’:
Jon: I’m doing the same thing here as you are, [spending night in homeless shelter] gathering material [for writing].
Nick: I’m not gathering material. This is my [working] life. [He works there as an administrator.]
Jon: Life is gathering material.
My take:
Life is for gathering material,
but what material?
Not much of the materialistic –
you need just enough to survive,
and you can’t bring that along when life ends anyway.
Life is for gathering material
for growth in personal wisdom,
for sharing with universal compassion,
by thought, word and deed.
What else can life be for?
Life is for gathering material
wherever you go,
whatever you do.
Everything else is immaterial,
just decorations and distractions along the way.