I have never sought a ‘career’, that is a singular path down one set of things in a specialty so as to have singular expertise and climb a ‘ladder’. My interests have always been many and varied, yet I am willing to delve deep enough in singular areas to understand them become fluent in them and then explain things from that area to others who do not have them… but that is not a ‘career’. Yet even that is only part of what I do in life.

I am not a specialist, I am a generalist. In my time I have programmed computers, used aerial photography to map out geological formations, utilized imagery to map out pre-defined zones for cartographic overlays, learned the techniques of off-set printing, color space rendition and its variations between what your eye sees and what can be put on paper or a monitor, configured system requests to have some of all of that encapsulated, put together computers, ran role playing worlds, played wargames, learned much of military history and thusly normal history, written about things I’ve bought… then I was struck with a debilitating chronic illness, the second in my life… then I began blogging to recover, did some javascript programming to find out what was left in my brain, researched topics from terrorism to organized crime to how we create societies and Nations, then moved on to firearms and not just to fire them but understand them, that rekindled interest in woodworking and metal working which I have never tried my hand at… and on and on and on…

A vacation?

What is that?

I don’t have a ‘career’ to escape, never sought an ‘audience’ and have written novels for my own personal enjoyment so those aren’t in the way of my having a ‘good novel in me’. There is so much to do in life, so much to learn, how can anyone just want to learn one topic well and, say, collect stamps, too (which I have also done). I have never sought the ‘approval’ of others be they peers or my various bosses, and when I worked for the government in all of that I had so many different jobs in different parts of the agency that I probably knew it better than other single person there. Yet that was just happenstance, not intent.

If you write then want to do something else, then I hope you find what you are seeking. It doesn’t matter if you are a good writer, but I thank you for what you have done… I certainly can’t sit still doing one thing in my life, and working with one’s body and nimble hands to make things that aren’t words on a blog post can be more satisfying because they are physical and palpable. Ideas can create Nations, yes, but who is going to put those cabinets together?

I am ill, yes, and desperately trying to claw my way back to something like having some energy in life beyond a couple of hours a day. Yet I dare to challenge myself and find things of interest I have only learned some of the very basics about as a child or young teen and haven’t touched since.

That, to me, is fun.

And rewarding.

It is good to be alive. Never lose sight of that lest you lose it and your life as well.