About Me, in My Own World

Posting every five days, on the fives, all my essays will be up to 900 words. (some exceptions apply)

Of course I am “proud to be a member of society.” Of course I realize “belonging and membership” is my responsibility, but I have seen things… Years ago I had the joy of being in a self help group where we could share stuff society would never believe—and it was so nice and healing to be believed. (Society knows how addicts behave, such as gamblers and alcoholics on the show Mom, but not about us)

I work semi-retired among persons with disabilities—such a privilege, the closest I get to being a parent. I am pleased and proud of my work and my for-profit company. Scott Berkun knows what I mean by “pleased” in his “teams versus stars” essay: link

Update: Also, my agency is pleased and proud of me, too, as this August, during covid, the President and V-P mailed me an elegant card, reading “You continue be amazing, kind, wonderful, patient, generous, understanding, and giving of yourself to others. Thank you for being you in this complex time… You are our anchor… You make the world a better place.”

Having the demeanour of a gentle army chaplain like Father Mulcahy, I won’t have traditional tattoos, “death before dishonour,” or a black leather jacket, while I respect others who do. Being a member of the “older generation,” one day in a university class of mostly women we all laughed when we discovered I was the only one without any piercings.

It’s nice that street kids have code names, while as a “straight John” I blog with my real name. I really liked where on the TV show Buffy the vampire Slayer a street kid code named “Ann” (episode title) later shows up on Angel as a very good Youth Care worker… as I know such personal growth is possible.

Ann grew so well that when a young man secretly knew he was likely spending his last night alive he honoured her by choosing to have dinner with her. (final episode) … My own dinner equivalent was when a couple honoured me with supper at their place, displaying on the table a written piece of mine and a small painting I had gifted them, bracketed by candles.

A fellow essayist, George Orwell, once noted that, except for Rudyard Kipling, artistic writers and intellectuals wouldn’t leave London for the colonies… I realize, at long last, why: Not because they were so dull and timid, but because their own kind were so precious and few. Hence I live in a major city… where I am still learning to say “we” for “we artists.”

Like Orwell, I take care to see myself as an ordinary man, no elitism. He once said that every man’s life, seen from within, is a series of defeats. True for me, while of course I never give up.

My favourite current TV show is Mom, about alcoholics, partly because I knew those people. Also, I “see” the acting, as I have studied with people learning theatre.

My favourite e-mail compliment, from recently, goes, “I am very glad to get a bit of news from you. You are a good and kind person, and a very authentic person and I am glad to know you.”

My favourite verbal compliment is when a man I served with in Currie Barracks became a social worker, and years later he said, “You’re a success story!”

I relate to Superman as “even though he could smash through any bank in the United States, he had the strength, but he would not.” (sung by Crash Test Dummies) Like him, I don’t do bullying or racism.

Also, while camouflaging myself as a non-nerd, I share that defining trait of a nerd: Earnestness. This grates on the would-be sophisticates, and so they avoid me—a preferred outcome.

Insecure and determined, I worked halftime, in a home, all through university to avoid any dreaded student loans. (While also having time for activities on and off campus) I graduated. I bought a small no-frills cabin and paid off the mortgage before renewal—because it was so small. My car, now paid off, is a hybrid Toyota Prius, rated “excellent” in all categories by Consumer Reports magazine. Charges by braking, handles like a dream.

Partly this blog is for practising new styles, new rhetoric and to boldly try a shorter length. Unlike classic essayists, I try to orbit a concept using only 900 words.

As a writer, I have had stories published in Britain for charity, and features published locally for cold cash. As an adult, I have learned of life by living with nice normal civilians, but no, I won’t write an English literature novel, not just yet, as I still relate a tiny bit to what a former orphan said, “I can’t understand people, I can only memorize the rules.”

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Me, Job-Wise:

My three most growth-y positions have been Infantryman, Recreation Therapist and Curriculum Designer. My three proud positions have been Chairman of a for-profit Board of Directors, Service Excellence Advisor (at work) and Rehabilitation Practitioner.

My ship’s cabin is:

just barely within city limits, in a vast city with no suburbs, (no separate mayors) so I guess that makes me “urban.”

Trivia: This post is over 900 words.