You know that thing everyone always says when you really suck at something? "Don't quit your day job?" Well today, just a few hours ago in fact, I quit my day job. So if anyone is reading Blame it on Barbara and thinking I shouldn't quit my day job...don't tell me, because it's too late. I quit my day job.
I was selling playgrounds and park equipment, and the job itself was okay, but I was just not very good at it. You might even say I sucked at it. I'm definitely a better writer on my worst day than a park equipment salesperson on my best day, but I also realized it was defining me. What I mean by that is I've always been cautious about saying I was a writer. When someone asked me what I did, I'd say salesperson, because that's how I was making most of my income. But I'm not a salesperson, not in my heart. I'm a writer. I am a writer, and whatever else I have to do to bring in a little income, then that's my side job. Being a writer IS my day job from here on out, that's a committment I am making to myself. So all of you fans out there better start telling your friends about the book, otherwise I might end up in the poor house! Not really sure what the poor house is or where I will go to live there, but it doesn't sound like much fun.
I chose to include this picture because it makes me think of new beginnings. I suppose sunrises and new beginnings go hand-in-hand, and that's a little cliche, but so be it. It's a good time for new beginnings, on the eve of Barack Obama's inauguration, even if they are cliche. I'm optomistically pessimistic about his presidency, and I think it's a good time to reflect on another old cliche from John F. Kennedy: Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country. Or at least ask what you can do for yourself, to make you a better you, because a whole bunch of better "yous" will eventually bring about a better nation. What Barack Obama has to offer, I think, is the ability to make people believe in that again. To believe in new beginings. To believe in their country and - more importantly - themselves. If he screws up everything else for the next four years, it'll still be worth it if he gets that one right. It boils down to the one thing we all could use a little more of right now...hope.
