Enough About Me

It occurs to me that it's been a long time since I've posted about my personal situation. And this is for a few reasons. For one, I can't really discuss alot of the stuff going on in my life in this venue.

Secondly, well, secondly is a little more complicated.

Blogging is always a little bit of a balancing act. Or it is for me, anyway. The question is often--how much does one share? I have a writer friend with whom I often talk these things over and we've coined the term "butt-showing". In this context, showing one's proverbial "butt" is to actually bare one's soul, to a certain extent, online (my friend is a blogger too). We talk often about how far should one lift one's "skirt"? Keep it at the knee? Mid-thigh? Upper thigh? Higher?

Thing is, no doubt about it, butt-showing sells. I've been a blog reader for over ten years and the stories that have kept me riveted to my screen are those that are deeply felt, truthful, and personal. For me, when I read about the premature end of Jessamyn's second pregnancy, or Heather's struggle with depression--both deeply personal situations--I always feel admiration for these writers that they have the courage to share their experiences, and even if I haven't been through the exact same experience that they're going through, when a good writer writes about a difficult time or situation, or an intensly joyful time, there's almost always at least a part of me that identifies with that.

I guess it's about truth. When someone writes the truth, is honest about their struggle or triumph or whatever and the way it makes them feel, it mostly always resonates with the reader. Ultimately, I suppose that's what art is all about. Sharing yourself and the truth about who you are and the experience of the observer (in this case reader) reacting to and, on some level, identifying with that. In the end, the human experience is really amazingly universal.

More often than not, when someone lifts their skirt all the way, even though it's really scary (not to mention breezy), it seems to me a large percentage of readers will take a look at their naked ass and say, "Yah. My butt sorta looks like that too."

Which doesn't exactly explain why I run around here in a proverbial prairie skirt more often than not. (Nor does it explain why my proverbial skirt doesn't seem to have proverbial underpants of any kind.)

I guess this is the longest introduction in history for me to simply say: I haven't decided yet what to do about my job (or lack thereof) situation. I don't talk about it much (read: never), but the fact is, quitting my job was one of the most difficult decisions I've had to come to in my adult life. People in my family, with my last name, simply do not quit jobs with pensions and health insurance on principle.

What people with my last name generally do is to calmly forge ahead at work, carefully building, though years of dedicated service, a solid wall of financial security around them. Until, after a large number of years of trading their life for security, they calmly retire and relax in their paid-for house, drive-their paid-for car, and conservatively manage and add to their investment portfolios.

Which isn't to say, that I might not eventually do the exact same thing. I may get another job tomorrow and move on down that path. Eventually, I'll have to start making money one way or the other, that's for sure.

The truth is, I have to see this whole situation as an opportunity. A brief oasis in the long stretch of my productive years when I settle down and take some time and really think about what it is that I want to do with my life. A fork in the road, if you will. I've considered all kinds of paths.

Through it all, there is one thought, one idea, one phrase, that that continues, time and time again, to echo through my mind (and has been going through my mind, really, since the first time I heard it). And that is the simple philosophy of the late great Joseph Campbell: Follow your bliss.

I find myself wondering if it could really be all that simple? And the answer comes back to me: On some level? I know it's that simple. I feel it's that simple.

The whole quote goes like this: "When you follow your bliss... doors will open where you would not have thought there would be doors, and where there wouldn't be a door for anyone else."

What is my bliss? I doubt that it will come as any surprise that you're looking at it. Even I've been a little taken aback at how productive I've become since I left my job behind. I mean, sure, I thought I'd blog more, but I didn't quite envision this kind of (near daily) output. This has, spontaneously, become my work. And nearly overnight.

The question is: Can I make it into a money making proposition?

Stay tuned.