balance

For the second week in a row, I find myself at the coffee house around the corner. Last week I spilled my guts on the keyboard, and it came out like this:

I work from home. Sometimes I’m at home and I don’t work. When I hit these times, I need to get out.

So I find myself at a coffee shop, though it’s too late in the day for caffeine. I wear a wrist brace; a friend said recently that our dedication to our craft(s) will cost us something physically.

But sometimes I’m not dedicated, I’m just wasting time and it looks like work.

I’m so tired of sitting in front of this computer.

Maybe that’s why I’m at the coffee shop.

Because I want to see other people.

Sometimes if you work in your own house and do your own thing, you start to think that the world is about you, even though you know it’s not. It’s hard not to get trapped in that kind of narcissism.

So I’m here in search of new ideas.

When an idea person runs of ideas, they find themselves at a coffee shop, wondering what everyone else does. There’s a girl wearing a purple dress working on a MacBook. I bet she does something creative like graphic design. There’s a dude wearing medical scrubs, and I bet he saves people’s lives. An old man across from me underlines notes in a thick book, while a beautiful looking girl sits across the table from her gray-haired grandfather, talking and smiling. I don't know what they do, but they are enjoying themselves.

Now this morning, at this same coffee shop, I have to fill out a survey for a business thing I'm doing, and it's all about me. What I think my strengths and weaknesses are, what sort of goals I want to set. Then an expert will evaluate me and give me various life pointers. The survey even says this: "Have a Balanced Life Which Works Well: Because You Designed It Selfishly."

Yikes. Welcome to America. Home of the ____.