Wednesday, July 26, 2006

T-Shirt #1

From Justin:

Justin - send me an address. I'll send you a shirt to wear while you're "doing something else
."

As of 5:00 pm on Thursday, I will be unemployed. I have had this job for four years and six months and it has been pretty good to me. But even though I don’t have another job lined up – I’ve barely got one in mind – I’m leaving my job on Thursday because one day I got to thinking...

We all know that you only go through this wash cycle once. You only get one shot at life. And your job, here in the good ole U.S. of A, is a big part of that life. Now, here’s the part I hadn’t thought of before. Your job is not just something you do. It is the thing that keeps you from doing something else.

Maybe you’ve thought of that before, but I’m damn near 40 and I hadn’t. So I’m going to say it again: Your current job is the thing that keeps you from doing something else.

Sure it’s self evident – after you see it. But I didn’t see it until recently.

I didn’t see that the very simple reason that I wasn’t doing my dream job – the work I was born to do – was because I was busy doing the job I had. It was quietly filling that very substantial space in my life. I didn’t recognize it, but, day after day, I was filling my only job spot out of habit. I was permitting such an important part of my identity and my life to be filled by default.

And then one day I saw the light – My job was the thing that kept me from doing something else. Just as long as I kept the place where something else could go occupied with the job I was doing, I would never, ever, get around to doing something else.

So, as of 5:00 pm on Thursday, I will be unemployed. I’m putting a minus where my job has resided for 54 months so that it has a chance to be filled with a new plus.

Cross your fingers.

9 comments:

Eric A. said...

You job also allows you to do things. Like buy food and shelter for you and your family. Unless your alone and only have to support yourself. then I can see how being a hermit would sounds applealing

Anonymous said...

good luck with that -(job) thing. as well as the minus food and minus rent money thing. at least you have a shirt on your back. and a cool one at that.

what is it you want to do that doesn't require some sort of income? I know I would love to quit my job and do other things but without a pay check I would be sitting around watching TV . . until my electricity was cut off.

I hope the other thing you are dying to do is also something that brings home the bacon.

Anonymous said...

So how does this even relate to Minus Car? Hmmmm I am going to stop brushing my teeth. Now I am minus teeth. I think I will write 300 words about this subject if I am going to get a shirt.

Anonymous said...

"what is it you want to do that doesn't require some sort of income? I know I would love to quit my job and do other things but without a pay check I would be sitting around watching TV . . until my electricity was cut off."

I find this to be an interesting response to Justin's idea of "MinusJob". From what I read, Justin has no plans to sit watching TV until the power gets cut off. It sounds like he is freeing himself from an unrewarding "career" to attempt something else, perhaps something more interesting. Assuming Justin doesn't live paycheck to paycheck, he should have some time to figure it out before he starts foraging the dumpsters. But aside from all of that, there are plenty of people out there who have the imagination and the intelligence to decouple their income from hourly work (by starting a business, etc). To most people who have given up on such dreams, it sounds like a big risk to leave a stable job to venture along an unknown path. I disagree - the larger risk is involved in putting out 40-60 hrs a week for someone else.

Anonymous said...

If I don't brush my teeth and am minus my teeth then I will use less flouride. Hmmmm that has to be a plus somehow environmentally. Oh heck someone will find something wrong about this and do a blog response and well we all know what happens. Smile, I got no teeth.

mytzpyk said...

Wow, the volume goes up a notch when there's free t-shirts at stake. I guess that's better for me...fewer essays mean more shirts for me. I won't have to go shopping for years.

The beauty of the anonymous comment is it allows the assumption that it's just one commenter making all the noise. Each subsequent anonymous comment dilutes the previous one.

When I read the story I think I saw he was pursuing his dream job...I bet it's a bike shop owner...those guys are REALLY crazy.

Eric A. said...

maybe -(wife) ?
(joking)(maybenot)

SiouxGeonz said...

I remember Arlo Guthrie saying in an interview that if you wanted to be a musician you had to not get a day job so you would *have* to do it, otherwise.
That's different from spinning into mroe and more inactivity. Will the unemployment lead to activity or inactivity?

westwind said...

that was a beautiful story, and gave me much to ponder. Thanks for sending it in
I understand that dumping one's car can save over $7000 annually, hopfully the absence of car and job will lighten your load on your path. Good luck