I know that the work I do is important. Not important on a grand scale, like teaching math or English to several classes of young people every day or like providing sound tech design to Beverly Hills for the holidays

Why on earth would you think what you do is less important than any of these? You do such important, such difficult work. I am in awe of the work you do.

Yeah what Kristin said. WindSparrow is wise except for that part.

Sigh. Not NEARLY so easy to read a book and watch TV at the same time if you don't have TiVo. Doh.

But I do have a TV antenna now, so get a few more stations. Now I just have to figure out WHEN shows are on. And what channel. How did people DO this? So....primitive. Gawd. (Doesn't help that there's no TV remove, apparently!)

Happy Anniversary Nora and Tom!

We're having a good time on vacation so far. TCG's neice and nephew are so adorable. We saw his nephew play soccer tonight. It's amazing how much energy and fighting spirit the little guy has.

There are different kinds of importance, I guess. What I do is vitally important to a handful of people who are seldom recognized as important.

when you have influence on individuals on a personal level, it is FAR MORE important than those who touch on masses in generic ways.

There are different kinds of importance, I guess. What I do is vitally important to a handful of people who are seldom recognized as important.

I wonder why DH makes so much more money pricing property/casualty insurance than my friend who works as a psychologist at a VA with severely schizophrenic patients. The world is very odd and seldom makes sense to me.

I've had a lot of jobs. From slagging pages of the JC Penny catalog to working at a non-profit nature conservation organization.

My favorite job--the job I loved to go to and came home happy from every single day? Sorting apples in an apple orchard.

Ooh I wanna play!

My favorite job- Driving a horse and carriage in Chicago.

My favorite job was working at a little gift shop where all of the customers knew me by name and where I was often left in charge of the whole place. Best job ever. It didn't hurt that I would also get tons of free stuff, spent a lot of time bagging up goodies of which I was allowed to eat as much as a wanted, and my boss bought me lunch everyday. It spoiled me for every job since.

Two more things on career and life choices...

First, I don't judge anyone else the way I judge myself. It just wouldn't occur to me. First, I figure it's none of my business. Second, I'm pretty good at thinking everyone but me deserves mercy and grace and respect and all that important stuff.

Second...it's not really that the work I've done for my paychecks isn't important or worthy in the abstract. It's just not who I am or who I want to be. It's a bad fit. And some of that is for the wrong reasons--looking for external validation, being too caught up in what our society views as prestigious as opposed to what truly matters. But some of that feeling of being out of place is for the right reasons. I'm doing something I'm good at, but that I feel no passion for. Even in my present situation, where I'm basically happy in my work and believe in what my organization does, I can't wait for lunchtime to come so I can bury myself in a research book and for the end of the day so I can go home and write. I want writing to be as central to my life as it is to my heart, not something I have to fight to find half an hour here or an hour there so I can meet my measly goal of three pages a day at least five days a week. And I'm fighting and fighting to get to a point where I can write full-time or at least step back to a part-time day job, but barring some kind of miracle that's years and years away, and sometimes it's just so frustrating and weary-making to keep trudging on day in and day out and feeling like no one in my everyday life sees who I really am.

(ETA x-posted with all the favorite job stuff)