Indulge me in the briefest of rants today.
As I get deeper and deeper into my new craft and occupation, I become increasingly irritated with people who describe me as either retired, semi-retired, unemployed or between jobs.
I am none of those things! Please stop using those words to describe me. Especially in my presence.
I have a full time job. I am a writer. I get up every day and plop my butt down in my office and open up the dream factory. At some point in the day I take a break and talk to you, Discerning Reader. At some other point in the day I close the dream factory. That is my full time job. It's what I do for a living.
I own a company--The Infinite Monkey, Ltd. My company has one employee who is currently working on a deferred salary. Me. I love my company and I really love my company's name since it holds within it not one, but two self-deprecating jokes.
I may look and dress like I'm unemployed and you might find me lurking at the library at noon on a Tuesday, but you shouldn't judge a book by its cover.
I had another one of those conversations today when a family friend called me for some advice and in the course of the discussion asked me how it felt to be "retired."
"Actually, I'm not retired at all, and I'm as busy as ever."
"Semi-retired then."
"That's not it either. I'm working full time."
"Sure. But it must feel good not to have a real job."
Ugh! At this point I did what I usually do and agreed with him. That's much easier than debating my employment status with others.
I suppose I'd be okay with it if I hadn't had the virtually identical discussion with dozens of other well-meaning people over the last six months. I'd also be okay with it if my labors to date had brought in the first penny of income, making the comments hit a little too close to home.
I guess I'm being a little defensive, and I need to get over other people hanging unwanted labels on my life. But still, just cut it out, won't you?
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6 comments:
Let me add my observations. While Hank's alarm doesn't go off at 4:15 a.m anymore (for which I am grateful--because my alarm at 6 a.m. is quite early enough for me) he isn't sleeping in either. He's up at a respectable hour, mainlining caffeine and sometimes making me breakfast. But on the days I am home or leave late, I can tell you he is at that computer and many days when I come home late (sometimes 9 p.m.) he is in a trance writing. It is sometimes an hour or more before he notices I am even home.
He is working and working hard. He's too young to be retired and I have moved way too high up the taste hierarchy to live on this instructor salary for too long. So it's like he is working on commission--the big commission hasn't come in yet--but it will. I know it will.
Hey I hear ya. I still after 10 years at my position of single adult minister to Single Adults at First Baptist Church Montgomery still get the question....Where do you work? Uh....here I have an office WITH 2 WINDOWS AND A FRIDGE! What could you possibly do all week?? UH......walk around and chant with the Gregorians or just stare into heaven and go UMMMMMMMM or I have actually said..."answer dumb questions like that". Thank you for letting me vent and used lots of.......dots.
I am wishing you the best year ever having the best time ever. May your book be awesome and your cover picture be handsome and may you continue to have peace, contentment and blessings.
Love ya both,
Kathy
Ah, sweet affirmation from two of my favorite ladies.
I started a new job yesterday. Before that, I was unemployed for 9 months. I was not writing or anything else. I was unemployed. I felt useless, and I was. I was not creating anything but misery. I do not have a creative bone in my body. Although I believe that everyone has a good book within them, I have not yet found mine. Hank, I admire you so much for what you are doing. I hope I can get to that point some day. For now, I need to be a follower, and do as I am told. Wish me luck at my new job...I think I will need it. All the best to you...I KNOW you will SUCCEED!
Anon: Whoever you are, you have inspired me on a morning when inspiration is exactly what I needed. Thank you!
The way you describe your feelings during your time of unemployment doesn't surprise me. I have a number of friends who are now enduring exactly what you have gone through for the last nine months, and I know how being unemployed has impacted them in every imaginable way, especially in the way they see themselves.
Congratulations on the new job and the new start. Once you've gained some distance from the bad times, I'll bet you will better appreciate your own worth--not as an employee, but as a person who loves and is loved by others. I suspect you will also realize that our greatest contributions to this world don't come in work we do to earn a paycheck
Our self-identities may be wrapped up in our work, but who we really are is revealed in the hours when we're not pulling a shift to earn a salary.
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