Went for a run with my buddy Jon in the beautiful North Hills of Missoula this morning. It's a great dumping ground for a lot of life's problems. They just don't seem to stand up against the early morning beauty of the trails, the cool air and the mountain vistas.
Jon is a good filter too. Letting the frivolous stuff fall through and managing to retain the nuggets that he often relays back to me in technicolor through his own rich perspective.
Today's run topics were anger and how not to let go of a dream.
Anger because there is a sense of righteous indignation one feels when their livelihood is taken away, and it's tricky to balance that anger and focus it into something positive as opposed to the naked anger of a bruised ego that might turn into a hatred of those individuals one perceives to be responsible for taking away one's livelihood.
Executioners no longer wear masks, but it doesn't mean we're permitted to blame them for pulling the trigger. However, a righteous anger at a rotten situation can serve to build a fire of purpose under one's rear end.
My complaint to Jon was that I want to make sure I'm a practitioner of a good and healthy anger rather than a hateful and vengeful anger. As in there is already enough destruction here, so let's be a builder rather than a wrecking ball.
The second portion of our run, conveniently when I'm most out of breath, centered on the topic of how not to let a dream go, or more pointedly, how to politely tell people that while you appreciate their offer to go to work as a receptionist at their dog-grooming clinic, your dream remains intact.
This is a bigger issue than I imagined. From initial texts encouraging me to look at the bright side and all the new options that are available to "It's a brand-new day for you!" I was a bit overwhelmed by the offers of employment from almost every vocational possibility.
My problem is that I don't like to make people feel bad, and I find it difficult to explain to people that I didn't study journalism in school for four years to take a sales job. That just sounds mean to me, especially in a climate where good jobs are so difficult to find.
As my resume has at times shown, I've worked a lot of jobs. From bus driver to barista and oil change expert to contractor, I hold dozens of certificates and a lot of forgotten experience.
But I view most of that as the proving grounds on which my writing career would rise or fail.
Journalism, aside from being the perfect solution to my life-long desire to watch people and catalog human behavior, was a great way to write every day and to learn to pay attention to details and grammar and spelling.
While only one of many writing disciplines, journalism fulfilled many of my desires in a creative and fun career.
This blog can't possibly convey all my feelings about journalism, but I wanted to point out that all the job offers and promises of keeping an eye open for me are completely meaningful and appreciated.
And many careers are honorable and even desirable, but I'm just not ready to give up the dream yet.
Tim
Journalism is lucky to have you. I was there when one idiot side-tracked your career (I was his next target). Journalism is not an endangered species. Newsprint and ink might be, but the world needs storytellers and watchdogs. The right medium will open for you and you'll do that which you do second-best (I think family-man is the thing you do best, from my perspective). I'd say "good luck" but luck is the residue of hard work, and you got that covered. d
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