Sunset, sunrise
I am watching the sun set on my 30s from my makeshift home office, seated at a desk I’ve owned for all of the last decade but probably have used more in the last four months than all of the rest combined.
40 seems like a good time to start a writing project, and starting a writing project seems like a good way to celebrate a milestone in a pandemic. We’re all supposed to write about our pandemic experience, right? And it’s not like I can do what I had proposed this time last year, which was throw a big bash at Johnny’s Hideaway with my synagogue birthday buddy turning 81. (Though now that I look at their website it doesn’t say anything about not being open or distancing or anything… hmm….). I am drawn to symbolism and writing, especially when pulling myself out of a dark place.
Also, lately I am overflowing with opinions and it is probably a good idea for me to shift to a different medium (ha) to express them. The ones I use most often at the moment— barrages of text messages or wild-eyed monologues in which I respond to an innocuous prompt by pummeling the other parties to the conversation with a torrent of arguments about how whatever topic was mentioned will result in the downfall of civilization — are probably not serving me all that well.
So, for the benefit whomever finds this on the other side of the downfall of civilization in hundreds of years, or the aliens, etc., I provide some context to the pre-pandemic life experience on which my perspectives are based (and accordingly limited). I am
- Very devoted to my career as an advisor to global companies on managing multicountry workforces. I adore the work, but in some ways do not fit into the mold of my position at all.
- A musician in my spare time (singing, piano, some songwriting / arranging).
- Married to a self-employed professional (and extremely talented) musician. My husband and I both have some similar qualities that one might predict from creative-types, which get in the way of stuff that other adults apparently accomplish with much less agony. My children are six and four. I always wanted kids but am not particularly motherly. I am a decent but not great parent.
- Jewish, fairly observant among modern / egalitarian crowd and involved in multiple synagogues and organizations, mostly with music / service leading.
- Lots of political views but contrarian and too meta to align with any U.S. political platform or party.
- Someone with mental health struggles, a proponent of destigmatizing but not ballsy enough to elaborate on mine in this particular post.
- Obsessed with Hamilton (linking to wikipedia because, unlike Johnny’s Hideaway, the official website is depressingly bannered with COVID cancellation information). You wouldn’t think I’d need to mention that in a brief bullet list but I kind of do because honestly, it takes much longer to explain certain sentiments to people who have not experienced Hamilton.
Onward to the next decade, one in which my colleague tells me I am presumed to be a legit serious person until I demonstrate otherwise. I am dubious. Apropos of my proclivity to reference Hamilton, let’s hope that I survive the whole thing without getting myself shot in a duel. Raise a glass!
