WhatColorIsOurParachute
I've been hunting for jobs, as I've said in other updates.
Jobs. Hopefully careers. The Apple Store position has good potential to start a career. I was really looking forward to it. Unfortunately they haven't called me in for an interview -- and today makes 2 weeks from the Open House. I'm not giving up on them, but I'm starting to look around at other stuff. They haven't answered my emails (I sent one after the Open House to thank them, and another yesterday to bonk them to actually say/do something already!).
So I've started to think. I'm a What Color is Your Parachute? type of gal. If you want a job, make it fit you, don't cram yourself into it. I have other things going on: I am no longer satisfied with fishing. I'm not satisfied with teaching people how to fish. I'm only going to feel right and good in the world if I'm teaching people how to teach people how to fish. That's it. Period. This world needs change, and they told two friends is insufficient for me. I'm not talking about world-domination: I just want some mindfulness of what the heck people are up to. People who blithely throw straw wrappers on the ground because a little litter never hurt anyone: Well, buster, I live in a city of over 10 million people during the 9-5 shift, and let me tell you 10 million+ straw wrappers really fucking add up! People shit where they eat, where they live, where they sleep, where they screw. Without a second thought. Amazing!
So I want to help open people's eyes, get them to think, get them to be present and mindful, get them to give a shit...and who knows, maybe even pick up a few straw wrappers, smile at someone they don't know on the subway, open their minds to something different and new and beautiful in the world....
Heck, I'm not even sure it matters what I teach people, as long as I look them straight in the eyes and the Divine smiles at them through me. Touch a soul here, make a baby chuckle there, ease someone out of a life of living hell into something productive and fun and environmentally friendly...
I have dreams. They're big dreams. In those dreams, I'm Superwoman, hopping into telephone booths to be whatever it is that people need me to be so I can do the world the most good and the least harm. Somehow I'll manage to be giving my kids pizza with one hand while teaching someone who has been unemployed for 10 years how to re-enter the job market, while giving a lecture on natural childbirth, and tying my marching boots on with my other hand so I can fight for abortion rights and ....you get the idea. I'm a voice of change. Proactive. I know what I'm doing. I know who I'm doing it for. I'm not sure if it will pay my rent or bills, but I'm not sure I give a flying fuck as long as it makes someone in the world happier without hurting someone else.
Somehow this has something to do with parachutes. Oh, yeah. Well, this is an "I have a dream..." moment. I can't talk fully about that dream. But I can discuss briefly the inspiration for that dream. Think Gesundheit! Institute (http://www.patchadams.org/home.htm). Think Four Quarters Farm. Think Open Source Development Labs. And then think about the man of my dreams who is destined to touch people and teach them how to teach fishing. If I can enable this brilliant man to teach people how to teach fishing, I'm also helping to teach them how to teach fishing, you know?
All I need is a dollar and a dream? I have both.