Balls and Walnuts
more than you ever wanted to know
Live anywhere & do well
We lost one of our ophthalmologists today — she’s heading up to the Bay Area to join a private practice. As I left her going away party, I told her that she’ll need to install a dry sauna into her home. She gave me a confused smile, so I added, “To remember us by. But you’ll also have to throw in some cow manure.”
That about sums up my son’s impression of Bako. It’s hot and half the time it smells of cow manure (or, for the sake of variety, garbage). He’s decided he wants to settle eventually in a place more like southwestern Oregon, where he grew up.
“Jake,” I told him, “the sad fact is, you’ll go where the jobs are.” And it is a sad fact. The climate here is miserable, the opposite end of the spectrum from the Pacific Northwest, but I’m happier here because the job is better. Not that I disliked my patients up north — they weren’t the problem. But down here I’m a part of something bigger than myself and it feels good.
And if climate change would bring the Pacific Ocean to our city limits, and also give us an average summer’s day of 70F, I’d really be happy, but I fear climate change ain’t heading in that direction.
I told Jake that the key, the Holy Grail, would be a live-anywhere job that (A) he enjoys, (B) makes him a good living, and (C) cannot be outsourced. The only things that came to mind were “screen doctor” and “bestselling novelist,” but those are things I might enjoy. Jake dislikes writing (though he is good at it). Consultancy jobs satisfy all but (C), unless Jake were to super-specialize in just the right niche topic.
As much as I hate to admit it, medicine satisfies a lot of these requirements (unless you want to live in an in-demand area like San Diego, the Bay Area, or Seattle — but even then the jobs are there, provided you’re willing to make some compromises). I doubt Jake would want to go into medicine, but I must observe that the same thing that attracted me to medicine is still true: he would never be out of work.
It’s a harsh, unpredictable world out there. Just as for my patients I wish I had a crystal ball, I wish I had one for my son, too.
D.
One of the hardest lessons life teaches us is that life isn’t fair, and when you’re young, it’s one of the hardest lessons to swallow. Those of us who are old enough to have eaten from life’s manure sandwich understand the lesson.
Jake learned that one REALLY early. Having a disabled mom will do that for you.
this has nothing to do with your sobering entry. (I’m not sure it’s supposed to be ultra serious, but the idea of any restrictions due to work seems unfair at the moment)
anyway.
well.
This guy stole your schtick. http://www.nerve.com/content/ridiculous-tips-for-a-miserable-sex-life-cosmo-and-mens-health-on-keeping-your-breasts-minty-fresh
Sometimes I wish I had that crystal ball – but then I realize that my parents did little or nothing to prepare me for the world and I still managed to make my way in the world. One of the reasons that humans have become the dominant species is that we are more adaptable than others.
And what would you do if you had a crystal ball, anyway? ‘In 2030, start training for a change to cryo-robotics. It will be huge!’ People do what they need to do to survive first, and follow their interests second, and Jake will do what interests him as long as he can survive at it.
Crystal balls, in other words, are overrated.
Kate, he did indeed steal my shtick. I even read that particular Cosmo poll and found it loathsome as usual. I stopped doing the Cosmo bits because they kept repeating their material — which made it impossible to write original jabs. His column reads just like one of my old Cosmo 13s. Nothing to see here, move along.
Dean, for one thing it would be nice to know if we should put all of our money into purchasing an easily defended hill in the far, far north — and lots of gun and ammunition.
Sometimes I feel like I have a crystal ball when I observe my children making the same choices I made and later on came to regret. Like watching a train wreck in slow motion. It’s agony for me when they, like I, have to learn from experience.