tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20417751.post1361873442855283310..comments2024-01-22T18:22:29.391-08:00Comments on hedera's corner: Work, Careers, and my Fatherhederahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01696592301686568456noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20417751.post-78807599063644215372014-04-23T23:11:55.767-07:002014-04-23T23:11:55.767-07:00I think I always imagined, growing up, that I'...I think I always imagined, growing up, that I'd eventually become some kind of academic.<br /><br />I was particularly drawn to literature, and writing, since that was something my parents were involved with, in one way or another. I thought: If I couldn't write something, something creative, then I could teach it. <br /><br />When I washed out of graduate school in the mid-1970's, the humanities were overflowing with new young graduates, and I fell willy-nilly into a government bureaucracy, performing the kind of drudgery that I suppose my parents had feared I might end up doing. Somehow, against considerable odds, and my better nature, I stuck with it, for 27 years, hating it, despising myself, nearly the whole time, because I thought I was meant for better things. Certainly I was more intelligent, better educated, and more imaginative than 98% of those I worked with. <br /><br />But staying with it taught me something about people, and myself. You could say I grew up in that job, relinquishing both my dreams and my fantasies over time. I supported my family, and qualified for a pension and a real health plan--things which I value now almost beyond measure. <br /><br />Work is a noble thing. It sounds really very silly to say it, simply, out loud, or in print. But it is. It's been 13 years since I "retired" but I have no intention of ever really retiring. I've been working full time as a rare book dealer for 15 years, and have no intention of "retiring". What, or where, would I retire to? A rest home? Curtis Favillehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06213075853354387634noreply@blogger.com