Yesterday was pretty craptastic, even before we
got to #SOTU.
I’d been toying with the notion of taking a
course whose object is to publish a book. My idea was to write about mid-life
career changes, but turns out there’s no point to going through the course if
all you’re going to do is publish a book; it’s supposed to be a stepping stone
to something else—a great job offer or a new gig. Well, I know I’d never get a
job offer on the back of my book idea, and I’d rather swallow coarsely-ground
glass than start up a coaching or speaking career about mid-life career
changing.
So that was a bummer.
Then, I spoke with someone who’d said he’d be
happy to help with my job search (but has been remarkably unforthcoming), and
asked him about a specific company that makes community engagement software. He
knows most of senior management of this company, so I asked for an introduction.
Oh, well, um—I should talk with my recently ex-manager about this company—he introduced
him to the company, and I probably
wouldn’t like the culture there. (Dude—my ex-manager doesn’t know I’m job
hunting; I’m not going to ask him about the culture of a company I’m looking
into as my next gig. Just come out and tell me you’re not going to be any help.)
So that was a bummer.
Then there’s all the news from the cesspool
that’s the White House and Capitol, which I don’t have the stomach to
summarize. Suffice it to say I did not watch the Kleptocrat struggle against
sundowning to read the teleprompter last night.
And that’s a real bummer.
No, I got home yesterday afternoon and just
inundated myself in something that’s unequivocally beautiful: music. And here’s
one of the pieces I chose.
I first heard Natalie Merchant’s “Motherland” a
couple of weeks after I returned from my European assignment in October, 2001.
I was in my car, listening to someone from NPR interview her on a Sunday
morning, and she sang it live in the studio. I kept driving down Route 7 until
I got to Tower Records in Tysons, and I bought the CD.
I’ve not thought about it for a while, but its
lyrics seem especially appropriate these days. What’s crawling about a thousand
miles a day now is worse than concrete. Lust and avarice? Yeah.
We have got to figure out a way through
this.
And I have to figure out a way to get over the
bummer that was yesterday.
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