Is the work separate from the person, and does it matter?

[image error] "It is not the work that defines you," he says.  "It's not the work that ultimately matters.  The only thing that finally matters is who you are, right now, not what you've done or will do, not what you make."

"But aren't the work and the person bound up, part of one thing?"

"The work is what you do, not who you are."

"True.  And yet:  It matters.  It means something, suggests something, stands in for something."

"It matters to you.  That doesn't mean it can or should matter to other people.  Tha...