Naval Gazin', Guitar Pickin', and Unemployment, Or, When Adventure Comes Knockin'
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
For the past month I have been living in a cloister at the Olson Institute for Advanced Studies (a.k.a., my bedroom at the Olson's home in Minneapolis); thinking deeply, reading good books, pondering the soul, playing guitar, and reflecting on my life, all while trying not to be a complete bum while I am unemployed. I have been looking for jobs, but these have eluded me in the strangest way. I'm still unsure what kind of job I'm looking for, but I'm anything but picky about temp work. I was planning on a debut tomorrow as a customer service rep in an incoming-only phone call center; a solid month of full-time, great paying work. But, as it would happen, the contract was suddenly canceled today at the last minute! Back to the drawing board.
These are the moments in life when adventures come knocking at the mind's door with the most convincing stories: never has that trip down the Mississippi in a canoe seemed so safe and dry; never has the bike trip across the country seemed so short and affordable; never has the month in a wilderness shack seemed so cozy and worry-free. I get the feeling I'm walking in the hallowed shoes of my great-grandparents who lived through the unemployment of the great depression and the dust bowl. Only the demands of duty and family kept their door shut against the insistent knocking of adventure. In other families, either from lack of family or simply disregard, they took flight on the wings of adventure and traveled the rails or moved out West. It would do us well to remember that every one of us of European descent live here in North America because somewhere in our family line, an ancestral adventurer risked everything to cross the great expanse of ocean to the "new world."
I feel the faint pounding of that pulse of adventure even stronger now that I am unattached, unaffiliated, and unemployed. Where will it take me?
Posted by Benjamin Washam 11:17 PM
I hadn't checked your blog for a while so it was good to sit and read your last posts. I'm sorry your contract was cancelled, but then again we know that God has our best interest in mind and a lot of times we get to look back and see why God allowed things to happen the way they did. Easy for me to say, but this is where faith comes in. I'll pray for you, ok? Love the green in the room by the way...