Going through my files, I came up with this little essay…

Quoting American author Kurt Vonnegut:

“When I was 15, I spent a month working on an archeological dig. I was talking to one of the archeologists one day during our lunch break and he asked those kinds of “getting to know you” questions you ask young people: Do you play sports? What’s your favorite subject? And I told him, no I don’t play any sports. I do theater, I’m in choir, I play the violin and piano, I used to take art classes.

“And he went WOW. That’s amazing! And I said, “Oh no, but I’m not any good at ANY of them.”

“And he said something then that I will never forget and which absolutely blew my mind because no one had ever said anything like it to me before: “I don’t think being good at things is the point of doing them. I think you’ve got all these wonderful experiences with different skills, and that all teaches you things and makes you an interesting person, no matter how well you do them.”

“And that honestly changed my life. Because I went from a failure, someone who hadn’t been talented enough at anything to excel, to someone who did things because I enjoyed them. I had been raised in such an achievement-oriented environment, so inundated with the myth of Talent, that I thought it was only worth doing things if you could “Win” at them.”

Me:

I was struck by this quote, posted by a Facebook friend from my old haunts in Chillicothe Ohio. While no one has asked me the typical questions asked by the other archaeologist he talked with on his lunch break, I can certainly relate to Kurt Vonnegut’s response. I’ve engaged in quite a few occupations (paid and otherwise) in my 70+ years on this planet without really excelling at any of them. Vonnegut’s revelation that having wonderful experiences and developing different skills makes one a more interesting person is a personal revelation.

            Been there, done that, have the T-shirt.

            I remember writing down a list of my accomplishments when I was in my late teens to early twenties. There were certain accomplishments I had not mentioned, but I recall my list as being somewhat extensive. That list has grown over the years. I have not kept track as I did at one time, but the list has grown.

            Until I read the quote, I was down on myself. I “retired” a little over five years ago with few, if any prospects of going back into the workforce. With the economic slowdown going on at the time, my prospects were even fewer… especially when you consider that age discrimination is really a “thing”, despite being told that age discrimination is not really a “thing.”

            My real problem has had to do with where would I fit in? I looked at politics, free-lance voice work (while finding out that the market is saturated), free-lance photography (phone cameras do as good a job as the electronic SLRs), or should I continue in my attempts to be a best-selling author? My prospects as a writer were slim to none. I had been writing for the better part of five years when I was “retired”. To date, I have made a total of less than $100 after an outlay of ten times that amount over six books.

            As a self-publisher, I was luckier than most. People have spent many thousands more than I’ve spent for even less return. I kept my wits about me and limited my exposure to a host of people catering to the vanity crowd. Between editors wanting a penny a word (cheap until you realize that a 60,000 word novel would cost a would be author $600), vendors selling book covers, and other vendors selling interior formatting (just at the tip of the iceberg), one can easily rack up three to four thousand dollars to produce a single book which likely would not sell because no one knows who the hell you are.

            And that’s publishing on the cheap. There are “Vanity Publishers” out there who are selling publishing packages for $10k and up. Mostly up.

            Enough. I took pencil to paper and did an inventory of what I have done since the tender age of 14 when I took over a paper route for the Chillicothe Gazette (Not mentioning the couple of times I substituted a Cleveland Press route for the carrier two doors down from me). I may have missed something, but here goes:

• Newspaper carrier
• Route supervisor for Newspaper carriers (District Sales Manager)
• Entrepreneur (Mowing lawns, washing cars)
• Grocery stocker (Cookies and crackers for the local cookie salesman)
• Photographer (High school yearbook/student newspaper)
• Slide show producer/writer/narrator (Free-lance and for employer)
• Videographer (Free-lance)
• Television Producer/writer/presenter
• Writer (Radio commercials, op-ed pieces, novels (6 to date), short stories
• Radio “personality”
• Public speaker (Motivational talks)
• Actor/Entertainer
• Musician
• Clown
• Tour Guide
• Served on a Church Vestry (Board of Directors)
• Plumber
• Electrician
• Mechanic (Auto and Bicycle)
• Offshore oil worker
• Licensed lifeboat operator
• Salesman – Advertising – Automobile (new and used) – power equipment – flooring – major appliances – electronics

As I mentioned, this list may not be complete. I’ve said nothing about other skills I’ve learned on the way.

            The silver lining to my various experiences are the various anecdotes coming out of those experiences and the people I’ve met on the way. I’ve included pieces of those anecdotes in some of my writing… as author Vonnegut has incorporated his experiences into his own writing.

            Anyhoo, now that I’m through with my little diatribe, it’s time for me to get off my soapbox and see what else I can cook up.

Be Seeing You!