Cartoonist Harry Bliss has a panel in the Sunday Tribune Magazine each week, and I'd saved this one for months, and only just this morning found it on the web. Click the little thumbnail here for the full size cartoon.Bliss here asks, "Have you ever given any thought to what you're going to do after all your hopes and dreams are crushed?" ... which struck me as an essential existential question. They should have FACULTIES in high school devoted to helping students prepare for the nearly-inevitable future reality where, indeed, all their hopes and dreams have been crushed, and they have to deal with the "what then?" issues.
Sure, the more dramatic ones will simply opt out. Hell, I wrote suicidal poems for decades until the point I just couldn't bring myself to write anymore. However, most folks find themselves standing in the ruins of their dreams and get about the business of "muddling through".
Well, here I am again. Going back to school "to learn a trade" tomorrow. Having failed to make a success of myself based on my heridity (i.e. my family's Public Relations biz), I turned to my talents ... having failed to make a success of myself based on my talents (i.e., the Publishing biz), I turned to my intellect ... having failed to make a success of myself based on my intellect (i.e. not even getting one single fucking interview after graduating with Honors from that Programming curriculum), I'm turning to something more basic ... hell, who better to be a bartender than a former raging alcoholic who hasn't had a drink in 20 years? Two decades ago, booze was my passion, my hobby, my best friend ... I guess if I can't succeed at anything in this world, I can at least survive by "going home" to my addictions!
June 30th of this year would be my 21st anniversary of quitting drinking ... maybe I should start a "dead pool" countdown from tomorrow for how long I will go without drinking, given that I'll be going back to being constantly around booze. Any takers?