Beryl says, "Work does more than pay your way... It gives you a reason to go on." Do you think her peers would have been able to comprehend her meaning? What role does work have in your life?

On page 226 Beryl says, "Work does more than pay your way...It gives you a reason to go on." Do you think her peers would have been able to comprehend her meaning? Why or why not? What role does work have in your life?

Beryl found both solace and escape in her work. It also gave her validation in a world where scandal followed you everywhere. I'm not sure her peers understood as women were to be homemakers and mothers. She wasn't conforming and was breaking new ground. I do admire her for that. I was a stay-at-home mother when my children were young. Later, I did find fulfillment in my occupation.

Beryl's peers may have admired her tenacity and resolve in her workday world, but I don't think they wished to emulate these qualities. They were too busy with their social life and appearances to work in the way that Beryl did.

It would seem that those who peopled Beryl's life were part of a social stratum wherein both men and women led lives of leisure and were not dependent on a livelihood. Without that experience it must have been difficult for them to understand her meaning.

I don't think many of her female peers would have understood, except someone like Karen Blixen who ran her own farm. She and Karen Blixen both had to support themselves through their own efforts, and it seems that both derived personal satisfaction from their efforts.

I think Beryl's entitled female peers didn't have the capacity to understand her feelings about work. She'd worked her whole life at jobs that were productive, fulfilling and knew the return one gets from a job well done.
I couldn't imagine working at a job that wasn't fulfilling, that didn't make me feel like I want to do more. I've had dull, repetitive jobs in the past but always tried to move on to something that maybe didn't pay more but gave me more of a feeling of personal satisfaction. Most of my friends who are my age have long since quit working. I think as long as I can string two words together I will want to write, to work.

I think work was central to Beryl's survival economically and emotionally. She was able to do something she enjoyed and that she could do well and so she felt there was purpose in her work. I think her peers would not have felt the same way because their circumstances were different and the role of work in their lives was different; more leisure and less physical effort. Work is important to me because I am able to provide a service and help others and this gives me satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment.

In the end I think work or rather training horses was a pathway to her father. Beryl adored her father and their mutual passion and understanding of horses became an unbreakable bond. Work was also a survival mechanism for her. It provided shelter, sustenance and purpose to live that her relationships with men never did.

Work for me is pretty much an essential piece of my life. I love my job and I love the work I do, which is why I put so much effort and time into my career. I think that it was hard for her peers to understand her position but I definitely understand where she was coming from and I agree. I think work many times does give you a reason to go on and also a reason to continue on a path that you may not have chosen for yourself otherwise.

To respond to Donna and Karen's comments. There were a few other women in Kenya who would have shared Beryl's determination to carve out their own path. For example, my father's Great Aunt Dolly whose brother Tich was a close friend of Denys and Berkeley Cole (together they were known as The Three Musketeers).

Dolly (a formidable force in my early childhood) very firmly trod her own path through life from England to Kenya where she spent many years, in between she attached herself to the French army during WWI to work in military hospitals (without any nursing training I am told she earned a reputation working in the operating theaters administering chloroform), then on to the Caucasus to work in an orphanage for Armenian children, and then back to Kenya before embarking for China and places east. She traveled widely, almost always alone and, like Beryl, also had a pilot's license.

If one must work and most of us must (tho' I'm retired), if you don't love your job or at best like what you do, life can be a drudge. Beryl was blessed with her love for horses and what she was able to do for and with them. She was able to rise above some really bad times in her life, where a less strong woman would've given up. I am loving this book; only about 20 more pages to go. The print is small and strains my eyes.

Beryl definitely experienced intense gratification in her work. She loved what she did and buried herself in work especially when she was troubled in her personal life. She didn't work to get a paycheck, she worked because it fulfilled her.

Unfortunately, I don't love my job - it is a way to support my family. Some people are lucky enough to have chosen careers that feed their souls. Maybe some day...

I am in total agreement with Beryl on this one. Work does more than pay your way....working with passion is a joy! I cherish the opportunity to work....to be challenged and frustrated...to learn and to mentor others. Love the paycheck...but it is not my motivation. Work is there for me, day in and day out --- and when Im there, I have to concentrate on it...nothing else! That is a blessing!

I think Beryl was way ahead of her time and peers. She was not content to stay at home and be "the little woman". You have to admire her for her drive and ambition to do things her way no matter what anyone thought.

Beryl was a very hard worker and I don't think her peers, except for maybe Karen, could relate to her work ethic. She loved what she did and it helped her survive during the hard times.

I have never had a job that I love but I like my current job most days.

Work gave Beryl a reason to go on because she had little else. It validated her choices in many ways. She did not have any family underpinnings to sustain her as she tried to find her way in life which is unfortunate. While I found work important in my life, as a professional and a working mother, I always remembered that work was what I did but not who I was. This line of thinking got m e through personal and professional challenges many times. Beryl didn't have it quite that way.

It was a very progressive thought for her day, and a symptom of her fierce independence. I have seen this attitude played out by many women who came of age in the 60's and 70's, as they fought through social barriers and professional barricades. I is difficult being from these generations to not have a strong sense of their worth tied up in their profession, but this attitude would have been a strange concept to the privileged peers that Beryl seemed to surround herself with, as a member of the British community.