A Towering Tongue Twisting Career Turn

January 22, 2016January 22, 2016 / roughwighting / 92 Comments

I knew a dare when I saw one.

The big-bosomed, pink-slippered, black-eyed lady stared me down in her small three-story home. The offer of a salary and a journalistic writing career hung in the stale air. (See A Directional Career Curve.)

I took the dare and the job.

Just out of grad school, after dozens of rejections, I grabbed the chance to actually work at my skill of … well, writing?

With a Master’s in English I could pen pages about Swift’s satire and write a 100-page thesis on the Literature of Expatriate Black Authors, but could I actually DO anything with that degree?

Pauline’s black-eyed stare asked me that question.

Within 15 minutes I signed the contract and, unknowingly, I signed my life away for a year.

Did I feel imprisoned in her third-story small bedroom cum office Monday through Friday from 9 to 5?

Absolutely.

Did I bemoan my decision by Day Two of my employment?

Without a doubt. Continue reading →

Are YOU Successful?

November 1, 2013 / roughwighting / 32 Comments

Funny, how conflicted a person can feel about success.

And there’s the rub. What IS success, and what is not?

That is what I’m thinking at 5 a.m. as I take in a deep breath, smell the essence of my tropical green tea, look outside my window and glory in the darkness, the blinking lights of the town and the city beyond the bay.

This, this is my success.

Waking up at 5.

Stretching and pulling and moving my muscles, yoga style, in bed before encouraging the whole lot of them – the cold feet, the sleepy leg muscles, the torso, the heavy head, to rise up from bed and start a new day.

This is success, starting a new day, every day, with freshness and vigor.

But sometimes I, and a lot of us (let’s be frank, it’s human nature to lie in bed in the middle of the night and …) ask the age-old question — “why?”.

Why strain and strive for another day, for another “success,” whether it be writing or banking, running a business or running a marathon, selling sailboats or collecting stamps, lawyering or antiquing (and I’m just listing a few of the passions I know of friends and family).

Don’t we all stop once in a while and ask, “what the hell does it matter?”

That’s when we should stop and, well, just STOP, and ask ourselves, “what does matter?”

I sip my tea and watch the harsh blackness of the night begin to slowly, slowly become a softer dark, a black that silhouettes the hills, the dark floating islands, the deep mystery of the bay in front of me. A black that mystifies and entices. These dark shadows soon will be illuminated by the sun’s rays. Objects that are dark now, will soon glow pink and peach and glory in the day.

Like me.

That’s what matters. I just want to glory in each day, stretch my body and my mind to wakefulness of the light, and the dark. Wakefulness of the laughter that surrounds me, and the sadness. Wakefulness to the aroma of steaming tea, and the soft strain of the classical music in my background.

Rosy dawn turns to a blue morning.

That’s what makes my day. I throw out the fear and insecurity of being a “success,” since it means nothing.

Instead, I promise to just stay in the moment, and ignore the rest.

Success!

Here’s to your success!

Do What You Love, the Money Will …

October 11, 2013October 11, 2013 / roughwighting / 32 Comments

Do what you love, the money will follow.

This is a quote I’ve heard many times over the years.

How’s that working for you?

I believed this philosophy starting in college, when I majored in English Lit, even though I was encouraged to study something more lucrative, like accounting or engineering.

Problem was, I couldn’t count, and I didn’t believe in logic.

So I stuck with literature.

Over the years, I’ve followed my love of words by editing and writing for medical journals and textbooks (learned a heck of a lot about radiologic technology, but my salary was x-rayed down to the bare bones).

I tutored high school special ed students, who taught me more than an encyclopedia worth of life’s lessons. But, of course, education is not valued as highly as Wall Street, and my pay checks illuminated that fact of life.

Now I’m office managing an historical society, using my words to protect and promote the importance of preserving our history. Love the job, even though “Non-Profit” means “No Money.”