"Don’t get me wrong, I’m not an unhappy person. Quite the contrary. I just know there’s a hole in my life and I’ve got to fill it — soon.” -- Ben Whittaker (The Intern)
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One editor I respect who looked over my draft memoir back when I was writing it told me maybe it should be called "Slices," because my entire career/life seems to have occurred haphazardly in multiple pieces. It was hard for him to see a pattern.
That sounds about right to me. Furthermore, I suspect that I am not the only person who has tried to make sense of his life only to discover that the main theme seems adapting to change.
But what excites me about the present moment is the next slice of life, though I don't know what it will be yet. At least now I'm relatively free of baggage, literally and figuratively. And after many pieces of my previous self have been sliced away, many more remain for the cutting board of the future.
Sort of like aged cheese, which the French swear by.
I'm not settled geographically, really, or required to be any specific place. I have no job or professional obligation; I own next to nothing, I owe next to nothing, and I am not anyone's emotional property.
In other words, I am pretty close to a free agent. You can be cynical and say that means I've got nothing left to lose, and you may be right, but that doesn't necessarily mean I have nothing left to give.
Which I hope is what matters.
These days I am trying to stay out of the mainstream as much as possible in favor of alternative paths, as I have done most of my adult life.
These blog posts represent one of those alternative paths.
As for options, I suppose I could go back into the workforce but on the other hand maybe I've done enough of that. Not that I couldn't be tempted by the right offer since there are plenty of good things I could help to accomplish with more money. But after being the primary breadwinner in my families for 55 years, maybe it's best for me to avoid returning to that role.
The fact is I don't know what I'm seeking but like Ben Whittaker, I know there's a hole in my life that needs filling -- sometime soon.
(This essay is from two years ago in August 2021.)
LINKS:
Xi Jinping’s foreign minister ousted after month-long unexplained absence from public view. (CNN)
Putin Is Running Out of Options in Ukraine (Foreign Affairs)
Putin appeared paralyzed and unable to act in first hours of rebellion (WP)
The Taliban Have ‘Infiltrated’ U.N. Deliveries of Aid (Foreign Policy)
Taliban salon ban a blow to Afghan women's freedom (Reuters)
Defying Unrest, Israel Adopts Law Weakening Supreme Court (NYT)
Biden sues Abbott over his floating border wall hours after he taunted president that he’d ‘see him in court’ (Independent)
UPS, Teamsters reach labor deal to avoid strike (CNBC)
The GOP is rushing headlong into huge election losses in 2024 (The Hill)
A New Kind of Fascism — Something menacing and novel is taking shape with the possibility of a second Trump term. (Atlantic)
Bernard Kerik, an ally of former President Donald Trump who worked closely with Rudy Giuliani in the effort to overturn the 2020 election, has given thousands of documents to special counsel Jack Smith, his lawyer said. Kerik, pardoned by Trump while serving prison time for tax fraud, insisted there was nothing "nefarious" going on and said he had not turned on Trump or Giuliani. [HuffPost]
Ron DeSantis' team says he is uninjured after a car accident in Tennessee (NBC)
Extreme heat wipes out coral reef in Florida: "100% coral mortality" (CBS)
OpenAI Quietly Shuts Down Its AI Detection Tool (DeCrypt)
AI Companies Are Trying to Have It Both Ways (Atlantic)
‘Barbie’ Movie Gives Left and Right Another Battlefront, in Pink (NYT)
Visiting the Trinity Site featured in ‘Oppenheimer’ is a sobering reminder of the horror of nuclear weapons. (The Conversation)
The Berkeley home where J. Robert Oppenheimer lived, partied and fell in love is on the market (SFGate)
Heatwave Causes Roast Birds To Fall To Earth In Perfect V-Formations (The Onion)
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