Doonesbury today is about Zonker aiming to be first an internet influencer and later, a internet troll (grouch, nay-sayer, ridiculer). His uncle advises him to aim for something else, saying that Zonker is too nice and too sensitive. The cartoon gets me thinking about Nastiness as a career theme and Careers in general.
www.gocomics.com/doonesbury/2021/05/30
My wife and I often look at our lives in some amazement. When we were 20, we had never heard of the themes that have been the main features of our lives since then. An article from The Guardian recently featured William Shatner and the idea that nothing matters, in all that serious a way.
That sort of headline could be taken as an excuse to not care about one's occupation, how it feels to work in it, how well it pays, what it takes to get into the work. At age 20, we had energy and pictures of what seemed like the likely version of the next few years. Those pictures morphed as opportunities arose and problems reared their heads.
I take seriously the idea that we don't really know what is in our closets, our wardrobes, our past, or our future. I think it makes sense to work at having a good life but also noting what aspects of the current life are chafing or irritating. Chafes and irritations can be suffered, but enough of them can be a call to look for something else.
