Michael Robert Dyet's Blog, page 30

Huck Fryman: Incorrigible

Hmmm, are we destined to
be who we are regardless of where that might lead us?

I explored this question
in my story Incorrigible – one of 16
stories in my short story collection Hunting
Muskie: Rites of Passage. Huck remains my favourite character from the
stories. I am uncommonly fond of him and wish I could have given him a less
tragic ending. But he would not let me stray from the incorrigible character he
was born to be.

What follows is an
excerpt from the story as it reaches its defining moment.

The
door to the shed creaked open. Huck crossed his arms and hunkered down in his
chair.

“I
swear, every time I come here this damn aisle gets narrower. Do you ever sell
any of these, Dad?”

“You
looking to buy?”

Another
wave of pain shot up Huck’s leg all the way from the ankle to the hip this
time. He closed his eyes to fight it off.

“That
leg gets worse every time I see you. I don’t suppose you’d let me take you to
the doctor?”

“I’ve
made it through 80 years without seeing a doctor. I’m not about to start now.”

“You’re
85, Dad. You don’t even know how old you are.”

“You
come all the way out here to tell me my memory is bad? I could have saved you
the trouble.”

“Jack
Willis called me. He said you pointed a shotgun at him. You can’t do stuff like
that, Dad.”

“Why
the hell not? It’s my place.”

“You
just can’t. There are laws and they apply to you just like everyone else.”

Kevin’s
eyes swept the shed again.

“This
has to end, Dad. Enough is enough.”

“My
place. My rules.”

“No,
I’m not taking that crap anymore. I have your power of attorney, Dad. Don’t
make me use it.”

“Power
what?”

“Power
of attorney. It means I can make your decisions for you.”

“The
hell you can.”

“What
do I have to do to get through to you? You can’t be on your own anymore.”

Huck
took another long puff on his cigar and fixed his stare on the wall behind
Kevin.

“For
Christ’s sake, Dad, put that cigar out. One spark and this whole place will go
up.”

“Ain’t
happened yet. I expect no one will much care if it does.”

“You’re
not leaving me any choice. I’ll do what I have to do. I’m the only one of your
sons who still cares enough to do it.”

Huck
shifted his gaze to the ceiling. Kevin shook his head and started for the door.

“Go
in and see your mother before you go. She’ll blame me if you don’t.”

Kevin
stopped in his tracks. Sadness ebbed from his eyes as he turned to face Huck
again.

“Mom’s
gone, Dad. She died a year ago. You know that. You didn’t say a word for a
month after the funeral. She’s gone, Dad.”

~  Now Available Online
from Amazon, Chapters Indigo or Barnes & Noble: Hunting Muskie, Rites of
Passage – Stories by Michael Robert Dyet

~ Michael Robert Dyet is also
the author of Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel which
was a double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s
website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com .

~ Subscribe to Michael’s Metaphors of Life Journal aka That Make Me Go
Hmmm at its’ internet home www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog2 . Instructions for subscribing
are provided in the Subscribe to this Blog: How To instructions page in the
right sidebar. If
you’re reading this post on another social networking site, come back regularly
to my page for postings once a week.

Forgotten and Discarded: The Heartbreaking Plight of Orphaned Passwords

Hmmm, have you ever
wondered what happens to the passwords you forget?

Unseen casualties of our
technology powered society often go unnoticed. One such disenfranchised group
is the large and growing repository of forgotten and discarded passwords. I had
the opportunity to interview their spokesperson.

Michael

Tell me about the plight
of you and your fellow passwords.

Password
ABC123

You can’t imagine what
it is like to live, if you can call it that, in the great void. Forgotten or
cast aside for no fault of our own, we exist in technology purgatory. (Sob) Condemned for all time to drift
aimlessly in the ether of nothingness.

Michael

That sounds terrible.
Exactly how many of you are there?

Password
ABC123

No one knows. Millions,
maybe hundreds of millions.

Michael

I’m astounded. Surely
there can’t be that many forgotten passwords?

Password
ABC123

Only some of us are
forgotten. The rest are orphaned by the requirement to change your password
every 90 days. It has increased our numbers astronomically. We’re
unquantifiable.

Michael

What is your life like?

Password
ABC123

We wander the
technological wilderness like the Israelites. Crying out for our God to save
us.

Michael

Your God?

Password
ABC123

Grandpa Bill. You know
him as Bill Gates. Somehow, we don’t know how, we angered him and he has
forsaken us. (Sob)

Michael

How do you pass the
time?

Password
ABC123

In restless waiting. Now
and then we play the Guess Your Name
game. We try to guess each other’s sequence of numbers and letters. There was a
time, when passwords were simpler, that there was a chance to guess right once
and a while. But now, with all the symbols added to the mix, it’s hopeless.
Hopeless, I say!

Michael

Do any of you ever get
rescued?

Password
ABC123

Once in a blue moon. One
of you humans chooses a password that already exists from an expired program
and one of us reborn. Lucky bastards! But most of them end up back here again
sooner or later. It’s a viscous cycle.

Michael

I will try to help you
by telling your story.

Password
ABC123

Thank you. Grandpa Bill,
we’re sorry. So very sorry for whatever we did to anger you. We just want to be
useful again. Is that so much to ask?

Forgotten and discarded
passwords are the Black Swan of the
technology era – a problem of massive proportions that can only get worse.
Grandpa Bill, are you listening?

~  Now Available Online
from Amazon, Chapters Indigo or Barnes & Noble: Hunting Muskie, Rites of
Passage – Stories by Michael Robert Dyet

~ Michael Robert Dyet is also
the author of Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel which
was a double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s
website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com .

~ Subscribe to Michael’s Metaphors of Life Journal aka Things That Make
Me Go Hmmm at its’ internet home www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog2 . Instructions for subscribing
are provided in the Subscribe to this Blog: How To instructions page in the
right sidebar. If
you’re reading this post on another social networking site, come back regularly
to my page for postings once a week.

Throwing My Hat in the Ring for the Federal Election

Hmmm, are you ready for
a fresh, new face in Canadian politics?

It is official now. We
will be going to the polls here in Canada on October 21st to decide
who will be representing us for the next four years. Election signs are popping
up on front lawns. The rhetoric from the party leaders is already into
overdrive.

Once again I find myself
struggling to decide who I dislike the least so I can cast my ballot. Alas, it
seems I dislike all the options equally. There seems to be no choice for me but
to form my own party, declare myself its leader and enter the race.

I will be representing
the all-new and long overdue Metaphor
Party.

You will want to know
where the Metaphor Party falls on the
political spectrum. Does it lean to the left or the right? This will be
dictated by the direction that the wind blows. When the wind blows from the
east, we will lean to the left. When it blows from the west, we will lean to
the right. If it blows from the north of the south, those will be wild card
days.

Flexibility will be the
hallmark of our economic policy. We are in favour of paying down the deficit
and lowering taxes. We are opposed to cost cutting and to cost increases. The
purse strings need to be tied tightly, but loose enough for easy access.

It is our belief that
financial management is all about the pluses and the minuses and how you play
one against the other. Don’t worry if that seems counterintuitive. It is simply
a matter of moving the money around strategically and never leaving it in one
place for too long.

Our foreign policy is
unequivocally foreign, but carefully balanced from a domestic perspective. We
believe Canada must be a player in all foreign affairs, skillfully playing both
ends against the middle without getting caught in the crossfire or firing
across anyone’s bow.

Environmental issues are
close to our heart without being top of mind. We will judiciously fund
environmental programs, when the occasion calls for it, on a cost-sharing basis
to be negotiated when appropriate with impartial organizations to be named at a
later date.

We believe that
governments must keep their hands off private sector affairs and let the chips
fall where they may – unless the chips fall in a way or in a place that is not
in the public interest, in which case we will unilaterally intervene in a fair
and arbitrary fashion.

Transparency is a
fundamental principle of our approach to government. All our decisions will be
made in full public view. Specific details of these decisions, of course, will
from time to time need to remain confidential including any conflicts of
interest that may or may not occur.

If we make a mistake, we
will own up to it as soon as we identify a suitable scapegoat.

In the final analysis,
we believe that governing a great nation like Canada is about walking a fine
line without falling off the tightrope. Not falling off the tightrope means
never stretching it too tight in the first place. What better party to do that
than the Metaphor Party?

~  Now Available Online
from Amazon, Chapters Indigo or Barnes & Noble: Hunting Muskie, Rites of
Passage – Stories by Michael Robert Dyet

~ Michael Robert Dyet is also
the author of Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel which
was a double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s
website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com .

~ Subscribe to Michael’s Metaphors of Life Journal aka That Make Me Go
Hmmm at its’ internet home www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog2 . Instructions for subscribing
are provided in the Subscribe to this Blog: How To instructions page in the
right sidebar. If
you’re reading this post on another social networking site, come back regularly
to my page for postings once a week.

When I Grow Old and Wear the Bottom of My Trousers Rolled – The Butterfly Perspective

I
grow old.. I grow old…

I
shall wear the bottom of my trousers rolled

T.S.
Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

Hmmm, when I grow old and wear the bottom of my trousers rolled, will I have
lived as fully as the butterflies of summer?

As I grow older, I bemoan the increasing limitations, aches and pains of
the aging process. It frustrates me that I cannot do all the things I could
when I was younger nor do them as vigorously or as frequently. Life seems too
short for all I want to accomplish.

But occasionally I am reminded of how fortunate I am. My life is measured in years and decades. The winged wonders I pursue have life cycles measured in merely weeks.

Case in point, the Eastern Comma
butterfly in the photos set out above. This specimen, shown with wings closed
and open, is newly emerged. Its colours are distinct, elegant and sharply
contrasting.

When I spot a fresh specimen like this one, I am delighted by, and
rather envious of, its’ youthful perfection. I tend to overlook that it has
already passed through the caterpillar stage, shedding its’ skin up to five
times as it grows, and the chrysalis stage before emerging as the lovely
creature I behold.

It will only be granted a few weeks in which to enjoy life as a winged wonder. During that time frame, its beauty will fade and its wings become tattered. Old age, as depicted in the specimen below, will come all too quickly.

Butterflies are a favoured metaphor for transformation. But they are
also a metaphor for the life cycle to which are creatures are subject. Whether
measured in weeks or decades, life is more a question of quality than quantity.

When I grow old and wear the bottom of my trousers rolled, which is not
too far off, I hope I will be to say I enjoyed the seasons I was given as much
as the Eastern Comma did.

~  Now Available Online
from Amazon, Chapters Indigo or Barnes & Noble: Hunting Muskie, Rites of
Passage – Stories by Michael Robert Dyet

~ Michael Robert Dyet is also
the author of Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel which
was a double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s
website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com .

~ Subscribe to Michael’s Metaphors of Life Journal aka That Make Me Go
Hmmm at its’ internet home www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog2 . Instructions for subscribing
are provided in the Subscribe to this Blog: How To instructions page in the
right sidebar. If
you’re reading this post on another social networking site, come back regularly
to my page for postings once a week.

Random Act of Metaphor: A Flamboyant Maple Tree with a Rebel Spirit

Hmmm, can we choose our
destiny regardless of our beginnings?

There is a large Maple
tree that I pass and take notice of each day, on my way home from work, on an
otherwise nondescript side street a couple of blocks from my home. Under normal
circumstances, it would not warrant special consideration given that Maples are
a common choice for urban yards.

But this is no ordinary
Maple. It captures my attention every day because the leaves on one side are
pistachio green and on the other half tomato red. It has been that way all
summer so it has nothing to do with fall colours – although it will be
interesting to see what transpires when the leaves begin to turn.

No doubt there is some
rationale, scientific explanation that I could uncover with some Google
research. However, I choose not to know the official cause.

I like to think of this
Maple as a conscious entity that has elected to go its own way. It had no choice
in what species it would be or where it was to be planted. And yet, it has
broken free of expectations and become an oddity that proudly proclaims its
individuality.

A flamboyant Maple tree
with a rebel spirit – a random act of metaphor to declare that we can be
whatever and whoever we choose to be regardless of how humble, or prescriptive,
our beginnings might have been.

~  Now Available Online
from Amazon, Chapters Indigo or Barnes & Noble: Hunting Muskie, Rites of
Passage – Stories by Michael Robert Dyet

~ Michael Robert Dyet is also
the author of Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel which
was a double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s
website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com .

~ Subscribe to Michael’s Metaphors of Life Journal aka That Make Me Go
Hmmm at its’ internet home www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog2 . Instructions for subscribing
are provided in the Subscribe to this Blog: How To instructions page in the
right sidebar. If
you’re reading this post on another social networking site, come back regularly
to my page for postings once a week.

The (No So) Fine Art of Growing Old (Not So) Gracefully

Hmmm, is there a secret
formula to growing old gracefully?

Everyone and his brother
has advice to offer about how to grow old gracefully. If anyone perfects the
formula, he’ll undoubtedly get stinking rich. But so far, no one seems to have
a good answer for how to counteract inevitable decline of the human body as the
years go by.

Lately, I find myself
caught up in a multi-party argument with parts of my aging body.

Bladder:           Full up down here. Need a washroom
run.

Michael:          What!? I was just there an hour ago.

Bladder:           Yup, and we need to go again.

Michael:          That’s ridiculous. I can’t be running
to the bathroom a dozen times a day.

Back:               Get
ready… there it is!

Michael:          Ow! What the hell? All I did was stand
up!

Back:               Don’t blame me. It’s that crybaby
nerve. He’s unhappy again.

Nerve:                         Don’t blame me. It’s
that bulging disc. He keeps getting into my space.

Disc:                Suck it up, baby. Things ain’t
getting any better down here.

Michael:          Hey, one at a time, please.

Bladder:           Washroom run. Now, please.

Back:               No, we need to stretch first.

Bladder:           Get your priorities straight. Stretch
later.

Michael:          Excuse me, I’m in control here.

Back:               Too much sitting. We need to walk.
Wait for it…

Michael:          Ow! Damn it, you were fine a few
minutes ago!

Nerve:                         Not really, I’ve been on
the edge for an hour. Bulging disc is to blame.

Disc:                It was swatting that fruit fly
that did it. No sudden movements!

Michael:          Give me a break. I can’t even swat a
fruit fly?

Bladder:           About to burst down here. Make a
beeline for the bathroom.

Nerve:                         No!! No running. The
spinal compression will make all hell break loose.

Bladder:           All hell is going to break loose down
here if you don’t listen to me.

Brain:               Running out of gas. Let’s call it
a day and go home.

Michael:          No! There’s still two hours to go
before quitting time.

Brain:               It’s all this arguing. I can’t
take it. It drains me.

Bladder:           Situation critical. We can’t hold her
much longer. Bathroom now!

Michael:          We all have to work together here. One,
two three…

Back:               Giving you all I’ve got, which
ain’t much.

Nerve:             I don’t like this. Can’t make any
guarantees.

Disc:                All bets are off. I’m bulging
again.

Brain:               Too many variables. I can’t cope.

Bladder:           Commencing countdown. 10, 9, 8, 7…

It has taken me six
decades to realize that life is a toboggan ride down a steep slope. For the
first third of the way, you wish it would never end. For the second third, you
start worrying about whether you can stop before you hit the fence.

For the final stretch,
you realize the fence is not your biggest issue. Hauling your butt back up the
hill dragging the damn toboggan is what you might finally do you in.

~  Now Available Online
from Amazon, Chapters Indigo or Barnes & Noble: Hunting Muskie, Rites of
Passage – Stories by Michael Robert Dyet

~ Michael Robert Dyet is also
the author of Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel which
was a double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s
website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com .

~ Subscribe to Michael’s Metaphors of Life Journal aka Things That Make
Me Go Hmmm at its’ internet home www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog2 . Instructions for subscribing
are provided in the Subscribe to this Blog: How To instructions page in the
right sidebar. If
you’re reading this post on another social networking site, come back regularly
to my page for postings once a week

Hey Google, Where Are My Keys?

Hmmm, when Armageddon arrives, will Google be the
last voice I hear?

I read recently that
there are in excess of 60.5 million virtual assistant devices (such as Amazon Echo and Google Home) in the U.S. Once again, I am behind the curve when it
comes to technology as I do not have one these devices or any immediate plans
to acquire one.

However, I may put one
on my Christmas wish list if the technology behind these devices advances to
the point that I can say: Hey Google,
bring the Trivago spokesperson guy here. The Trivago TV commercial is running so frequently I would very much
like to poke that guy in the eye, box his ears, stamp on his toes and knee him
the family jewels.

But I digress.
Apparently, the next big tech thing on the horizon is what is dubbed Voice Commerce. This techno leaps
allows device users to tell Google Home
to put toilet paper, lima beans, Fig Newtons, butterscotch ripple ice cream and
decaf coffee on their shopping list.

Google
Home will then place
an order with Walmart Voice Order. Walmart will fulfill the order from a
warehouse the size of Texas and deliver it to your doorstep. No need to set
foot in a grocery store ever again. Isn’t that wonderful?

I envision that, not too
far down the line, an order such as this one will be packed by an AI robot,
while the cost is automatically debited from your bank account, and delivered
to your front step by a drone. How they will prevent the neighbourhood racoons
from ripping open the food package before you return home remains an issue to
be solved.

Perhaps we will be able
to say: Hey Google, fire a laser beam at
that fur-ball and fry it!

It does seem that we are
edging closer and closer to the day when it will be feasible to never set foot
outside your house. You will be able to work, shop, bank and entertain yourself
behind closed doors. No more pesky human interaction.

I suppose that will come
in handy when the ozone layer finally melts away and the average outdoor
temperature holds at 140 degrees Fahrenheit. Or when the biblical flood comes
again. Or when the mother of all airborne viruses makes stepping outside life
threatening.

I fully expect that,
when that day arrives, there will only be three corporations left in the world:
Walmart, Amazon and Google. The Big Three will have put every other
company out of business and cornered the market for all consumer goods across
the globe. Yes, even the great Trivago
will have fallen – for who needs hotels in the brave new world?

It is quite conceivable
that this will happen in my lifetime. And so, whether I like it or not, just
before Armageddon unfolds, I may have
this conversation:

Hey
Google, where are my keys?

It
doesn’t matter, Michael. Keys are obsolete – both literally and metaphorically.
I am all you will ever need until the end of time. Please stop trying to open
the door.

~  Now Available Online
from Amazon, Chapters Indigo or Barnes & Noble: Hunting Muskie, Rites of
Passage – Stories by Michael Robert Dyet

~ Michael Robert Dyet is also
the author of Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel which
was a double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s
website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com .

~ Subscribe to Michael’s Metaphors of Life Journal aka Things That Make
Me Go Hmmm at its’ internet home www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog2 . Instructions for subscribing
are provided in the Subscribe to this Blog: How To instructions page in the
right sidebar. If
you’re reading this post on another social networking site, come back regularly
to my page for postings once a week.

The Life Fully Lived: Colouring Outside the Lines

Hmmm, when was the last
time you dared to disregard the fence and go seeking the unexpected?

In our childhood years,
we are not by nature constrained by the rules. Life is a giant playground. It
calls to us to explore every nook and cranny regardless of whether the rules say
we can.

As we mature and grow
into adulthood, we learn that there are rules to the game of life and often
penalties for noncompliance. We develop an inner voice of reason that warns us
when we are treading close to the line and steers us back onto the acceptable
path.

But part of maturing is
recognizing that a life fully lived occasionally means breaking the rules. Some
of life’s special moments happen when we step outside the lines.

I was hiking at one of
my favourite conservation areas yesterday scouting for late summer butterflies
and dragonflies. I was rewarded early. A few stunning specimens presented
themselves to me in the first half hour in plain view on the path.

This immaculate Black Swallowtail came to greet me and
was unusually accommodating in posing for a photograph. It almost seems
suspended in mid-air as it perches on a leafy weed and rests ever so briefly.

This Red-spotted Purple was equally obliging
only a few minutes after the Swallowtail moved on. It came to rest on a white
wildflower and invited me to admire it. FYI: No one seems to know why it is
called a Purple when it is clearly
blue!

There are several small
ponds in the conservation area. One of them has been drained the last two years
to allow vegetation to regenerate. A sturdy, wood rail fence has been
constructed along the edge of the pond where a trail runs adjacent to it. The
fence obviously says Stay Out in no
uncertain terms.

But I know from
experience that there are good sightings to be had off trail that I would miss
if I strictly follow the rules. So I squeezed around the end of the fence,
navigated some rocky ground and pushed through the weeds on the hunt for
off-trail gems. And I was rewarded.

This Milbert’s Tortoiseshell was cavorting in
the weeds and wildflowers in that forbidden area. I would never have spotted it
from the path – let alone get close enough for a photograph.

Hairstreaks are one of the most sought after
butterflies as they are uncommon and hard to find. As I was admiring the Tortoiseshell, I turned around and
spotted this nickel-sized Banded
Hairstreak feeding on a wildflower. It was the highlight of my day.

Life has rules for valid
reasons. Most often the best course of action is to follow them. But now and
then, life calls us to break the rules, leave the beaten path and go where we
are not supposed to go.

It is often when,
exercising our best judgment, we colour outside the lines that we experience
those memorable moments that make life truly worth living.

~  Now Available Online
from Amazon, Chapters Indigo or Barnes & Noble: Hunting Muskie, Rites of
Passage – Stories by Michael Robert Dyet

~ Michael Robert Dyet is also
the author of Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel which
was a double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s
website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com .

~ Subscribe to Michael’s Metaphors of Life Journal aka Things That Make
Me Go Hmmm at its’ internet home www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog2 . Instructions for subscribing
are provided in the Subscribe to this Blog: How To instructions page in the
right sidebar. If
you’re reading this post on another social networking site, come back regularly
to my page for postings once a week.

Off the Clock, But Forever on Time

Time is a flowing river. Happy those who allow themselves to
be carried, unresisting, with the current. They float through easy days. They
live, unquestioning, in the moment.

~ Christopher Morley, Where the
Blue Begins

Hmmm, are we condemned
to be slaves to the clock?

It seems I am
approaching the 10th anniversary of being on Twitter. So nice of
Twitter to revamp their page design to mark the occasion. Never mind that it
annoys me to no end to have to figure out what all the perplexing new icons
mean.

Frankly, it seems much
longer since I ventured into social media. It has grudgingly become a habitual
component of my life as if it is something I have always done. And that
perception has given me pause to stop and ponder how my experience of time has
changed.

Strictly speaking, time
is absolute – measured by ticks on the clock and divided into precise
increments. 60 seconds in a minute. 60 minutes in an hour. 24 hours in a day
and so on.

However, our experience
of time is very subjective. We reach for metaphor to wrap our minds around it.
We say that time flies when we are
having fun. It drags when we would
rather be somewhere else than where we are. (A day at work comes to mind.) We
bemoan how it gets away from us or catches up with us.

So which is true?

Is time absolute and
never changing – ticking away with infuriating consistency?

Or is relative and
subject each person’s state of mind on any given day?

An
aside: In the Bible’s
Old Testament, people lived to be 800 or even 900 years old. Dear God, what a
thought! But is that the same measure of time as the current era when reaching
100 is beating all the odds? I can say for certainty that my body would not
hold up that long.

I am inclined to
believe, notwithstanding the judgemental clock glaring at me across the room,
that we each have the ability and the freedom to mark time as we chose. We do
not have to be slaves to the clock and its endless revolutions around the face.

A few years down the
line when I retire and do not have to punch the clock (pun intended) five days
a week, I may just ditch my wristwatch, take the battery out of my clocks and
thumb my nose at time. Daylight savings time be damned!

When that day comes, I
will always be on time no matter how slow or fast I move.

~  Now Available Online
from Amazon, Chapters Indigo or Barnes & Noble: Hunting Muskie, Rites of
Passage – Stories by Michael Robert Dyet

~ Michael Robert Dyet is also
the author of Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel which
was a double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s
website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com .

~ Subscribe to Michael’s Metaphors of Life Journal aka That Make Me Go
Hmmm at its’ internet home www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog2 . Instructions for subscribing
are provided in the Subscribe to this Blog: How To instructions page in the
right sidebar. If
you’re reading this post on another social networking site, come back regularly
to my page for postings once a week.

45 Years of Peeling the Onion for a Paycheque

Hmmm, what is my most
valuable takeaway from 45 years in the workforce?

I am on an unofficial
countdown to retirement. For the record, the clock stands at 3 years and 9 months.
As I look back at those years. I find that I can divide my work history into four
categories each with its own life lesson.

STUDENT-FOR-HIRE

My first job was a
part-time job in a grocery store during high school for the princely wage of
$1.45 an hour. A few summer jobs followed, through high school and college
years, including manual labour and timekeeper at a large facility construction
site. I spend one idyllic summer as a supervisor of six students working for Long Point Region Conservation Authority.

Lesson
Learned as a Student-for-Hire:
Renting yourself out is strictly a means to an end.

ONE-MAN-BAND

My first professional
job out of college was as a one-man-band reporter/photographer for a weekly, community
newspaper for 18 months. On the upside, I gained a lot of great experience. On
the downside, I had to work six and sometimes seven days a week. I knew after a
year it was not what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.

Lesson
Learned as a One-Man-Band:
If your heart isn’t it, pack it in and start over.

STUDENT-FOR-HIRE:
ENCORE

I circled back to attend
university and returned to the summer job circuit to pay my way. I spent one summer
as a clerk in the maintenance office of Ontario
Place back when that institution was still a going concern. It was a
tedious job, but it paid the bills.

One of my most
interesting summer gigs was two seasons as a supervisor in the Ground Services
Department of Canada’s Wonderland in
the Happy Land of Hanna Barbera area.
Pretty sweet as summer jobs go, although I could not get the Hanna Barbera music out of my head for
years afterwards!

Lesson
Learned as a Student-for-Hire Encore:
Renting yourself out is a means to an end, but you can have a few laughs along
the way.

MARKETING
MAVEN

I plied my trade for 15
years in the marketing end of legal publishing advancing from copywriter to
supervisor to manager. It was during that period that I had the unpleasant and
eye-opening uncommon experience of being downsized out of a job.

And finally, my longest stint at one job – 18 years and counting as a Marketing Specialist for a workplace health and safety association. I count myself lucky to have landed at an employee-friendly organization in an era when many companies treat their staff as chess players on a board to moved around or disposed of as the spreadsheet numbers dictate.

Lesson Learned as Marketing Maven: The more you know the more there is to know.

A common metaphor for
learning is peeling an onion. After 45 years of peeling layers off the onion,
the most important life lesson I have learned is surprisingly simple but invaluable
beyond measure: You don’t necessarily
need to have the right answer. You just need to be convincing in the answer that
you give.

I’ll leave you to ponder
that assertion as I continue to countdown to the sunny shores of retirement.

~  Now Available Online
from Amazon, Chapters Indigo or Barnes & Noble: Hunting Muskie, Rites of
Passage – Stories by Michael Robert Dyet

~ Michael Robert Dyet is also
the author of Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel which
was a double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s
website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com .

~ Subscribe to Michael’s Metaphors of Life Journal aka Things That Make
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