I loved this essay, and I think the advice to try everything and discover yourself is good advice.
If I can offer up some unsolicited advice on giving advice, it’s that I wish people would stop asking kids “what do you want to be when you grow up,” because kid’s answers will always be what’s visible: firefighter, ballerina, astronaut,
(I once heard a kid proudly announce he wanted to be a garbageman. His mom was horrified, which in turn horrified me, firstly because she was squishing her kid’s joy, secondly because taking out the trash is essential to civilization, thirdly because of the classism embedded in her horror.)
I think a more valuable question is “what do you like to do?”
There are so many creative, interesting jobs in the world that aren’t “visible” the way the role of firefighter or police officer is visible. Almost everything we see and touch every day was made by a person. The shows we watch need the combined efforts of hundreds of people, most of them behind the scenes.
There is a whole world out there, and the kid who is given opportunity and encouragement to try different thing and discover what lights them up is a kid who’ll have a great future ahead.
so I had that in here but I took it out -- about how parents ask kids what they want to be when they grow up and how it’s one of those questions that can carry unnecessary stress
Some things should probably be read in your early 20's -- Hunter S Thomson, Kerouac, Tom Wolfe, Bukowski, Camus, Kesey, Chatwin -- they just don't ring as true to you in your 50's.
Good question! Nostalgia gets me more now, maybe. Out of Africa. Moveable Feast. WW1 novels. Goodbye to all That. Loss. Loss of things that could have been. I’m more into nature now too. So Desert Solitude. I just read a memoir of Colorado in the 30’s
I loved this essay, and I think the advice to try everything and discover yourself is good advice.
If I can offer up some unsolicited advice on giving advice, it’s that I wish people would stop asking kids “what do you want to be when you grow up,” because kid’s answers will always be what’s visible: firefighter, ballerina, astronaut,
(I once heard a kid proudly announce he wanted to be a garbageman. His mom was horrified, which in turn horrified me, firstly because she was squishing her kid’s joy, secondly because taking out the trash is essential to civilization, thirdly because of the classism embedded in her horror.)
I think a more valuable question is “what do you like to do?”
There are so many creative, interesting jobs in the world that aren’t “visible” the way the role of firefighter or police officer is visible. Almost everything we see and touch every day was made by a person. The shows we watch need the combined efforts of hundreds of people, most of them behind the scenes.
There is a whole world out there, and the kid who is given opportunity and encouragement to try different thing and discover what lights them up is a kid who’ll have a great future ahead.
so I had that in here but I took it out -- about how parents ask kids what they want to be when they grow up and how it’s one of those questions that can carry unnecessary stress
Typos!!! Can’t edit Substack comments on mobile. Oh well.
One of my kids told our friend that he wanted to be an army or a mystery. Idk
Some things should probably be read in your early 20's -- Hunter S Thomson, Kerouac, Tom Wolfe, Bukowski, Camus, Kesey, Chatwin -- they just don't ring as true to you in your 50's.
what books ring true in your 50s though that didn't hit you earlier in life?
Good question! Nostalgia gets me more now, maybe. Out of Africa. Moveable Feast. WW1 novels. Goodbye to all That. Loss. Loss of things that could have been. I’m more into nature now too. So Desert Solitude. I just read a memoir of Colorado in the 30’s
i don't know what prompted me to sub you, but i now UNsub you...
this was a few minutes of my life wasted on gobbledygook that i'll never get back!
'be yourself' is NOT nonsense, but this post certainly was- goodbye
👍