New year, new life
28/12/13 15:14![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
darkemeraldsI quit making New Year's resolutions a lot of New Years ago--total recipe for failure, in my book--but given that this January 1 will also be the first day of the rest of my life in a more particular way than every other day of the world, I'm giving it some thought.
The thing that has given my life its structure more or less continuously since 1970 is suddenly going to drop away. My external motivation for getting up in the morning, grooming myself, wearing decent clothes, leaving my house, and (in recent years) getting exercise will be no more.
I don't yet have a clue what will replace it. In my limited experience of unemployment, the lack of structure is not my best friend. But the key word is "limited." Will a month of do-nothing nightowl-dom be enough for a more natural structure to start appearing? Two months? How could I know? I've never tried it.
What's more, the fact of having a job has been one of a very few connections I feel to "most people," a broad if rather shallow patch of common ground. Google Plus keeps reminding me to list my workplace in my profile, because without it, I'm only 80% complete.
So, what new scaffolding will I build to keep my life from dissolving into a puddle of undifferentiated time?
I have no idea yet. I should probably be terrified. Maybe I am terrified and I just don't know it. How does one feel at an event horizon?
The thing that has given my life its structure more or less continuously since 1970 is suddenly going to drop away. My external motivation for getting up in the morning, grooming myself, wearing decent clothes, leaving my house, and (in recent years) getting exercise will be no more.
I don't yet have a clue what will replace it. In my limited experience of unemployment, the lack of structure is not my best friend. But the key word is "limited." Will a month of do-nothing nightowl-dom be enough for a more natural structure to start appearing? Two months? How could I know? I've never tried it.
What's more, the fact of having a job has been one of a very few connections I feel to "most people," a broad if rather shallow patch of common ground. Google Plus keeps reminding me to list my workplace in my profile, because without it, I'm only 80% complete.
So, what new scaffolding will I build to keep my life from dissolving into a puddle of undifferentiated time?
I have no idea yet. I should probably be terrified. Maybe I am terrified and I just don't know it. How does one feel at an event horizon?
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(no subject)
29/12/13 08:58 (UTC)When I was recently unemployed, I wound up going to a fair number of local meetups via meetup.com -- some were better than others, but most were at least interesting. I think the most resonant social connection that came out of that was the guy with the dog with various vision problems, who turned out to have been an old friend of one of my other local friends, which I learned after retweeting him and accidentally becoming the instrument of their reconnection.
(no subject)
29/12/13 18:11 (UTC)Your story of the secondary connection is wonderful. Even people like me, out here on the fringes of the social network, are more connected than we think (as Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn and Twitter are constantly reminding me). The trick for me is acting on those connections. Judiciously.
I sometimes feel like it's my thing in life, putting two other people together, or linking someone else with an idea or resource. I'm like an old-time phone operator. I suspect we edge-dwellers have a peculiar talent for that sort of thing.