Current Contemplation: More Career Thoughts

A fun adaptation of Bowie's iconic 1973 album cover at the Steven Kasher Gallery in Chelsea

I was recently thinking back to a conversation I had with Anna about why she wanted to be a writer. She told me that ever since she was little she couldn't stop writing (whether it was a song or a narrative or a script), and that she knew no matter what form her writing took shape in, she would always keep writing. And she asked me what my own "drive/passion" was - the one thing I just couldn't help myself from doing.

I tried to answer with what my "I've done this forever" trait would be, and I said something vaguely true, (something about organizing projects, I think), but the more I thought about it the more I realised that wasn't quite right.

So after further contemplation, particularly after the move, I have finally come to a satisfactory answer to the question Anna posed me months ago: lesson planning.

As a child I would think of traditional lesson plans that a teacher would give, or even sermons that would be great for a pastor (despite my then [and continuing] reluctance to do anything heavily involved with the church). They would always start out with a relatable topic or point of interest, then delve deeper into a larger argument about a moral lesson - or even just advice for a situational problem.

And even now as I figure out what I enjoy writing and what I am inspired by, it's constantly related to discussing and conveying "lessons" for how to live a Good Life (hint: my answer usually turns out pretty Jesus-y). Most of my own drabbles are about trying to figure out more lessons and "rules" about the intricate workings of the spiritual and practical lives we should live.

However, my interest in "lesson planning" has started to look less and less like straight forward teaching curriculum and more like wandering essays and arguments.

I have further combined this with the following passions/drives I have reflected upon possessing:

1. Advice giving/lesson planning - I am constantly on the lookout for ways that analogies can be made and applied to larger moral concerns and value lessons

2. Adaptation - under a wonderful tutelage of Bowie, I have continued strengthening my very specific game of "What If" ("In fact, what I found that I was good at doing, and what I really enjoyed the most, was the game of "what if?" What if you combined Brecht-Weill musical drama with rhythm and blues? What happens if you transplant the French chanson with the Philly sound? Will Schoenberg lie comfortably with Little Richard? Can you put haggis and snails on the same plate? Well, no, but some of the ideas did work out very well." -Bowie, 1999) I have found that I usually wonder what mediums would look like swapped (ie, but what would this movie look like as a book, what would this video game look like as a play, etc.). However, something that I've done since a child is play with story elements and adapt them to my own purposes. I wrote fanfiction as a high schooler because I enjoyed that the sandbox was already constructed - all that was left was to play by the rules previously established and make something new out of the existing elements. It was always more fun (and easier) for me to do than make something completely new and create the sandbox within which I was to play.

3. I have always enjoyed researching and compiling information about a variety of topics. Whatever I am interested in, I go in 110% (as anyone who knows me or follows me on social media can attest to). Right now it is David Bowie, but my previous obsessions have been just as thoroughly researched. Not only that, but I find that I enjoy conveying "fun facts" to others - Todd once thought about nicknaming me Google because of my random trivia on a variety of subjects from science to history to pop culture to philosophy.

I would say these are the three strongest interests and talents I have possessed since childhood. I have always done them in some form, and can't seem to help myself from researching information, making connections, and adapting them to some sort of life lesson or piece of advice for another.

Skills I have cultivated since being a teenager that I know I am good at, and generally enjoy, include my more marketable skillsets of: organization, collaboration, and communication with others.

Nothing else to report - I still don't have a job in my field or a particular manifestation of the aforementioned skills and passions that I want to pursue, but I think that by understanding what I exactly possess and am interested in, I have definitely fought at least half the battle.