| | In the "Crab Bucket" article discussion, Rick Giles quoted Robert Heinlein: "Every man should be able to paint a portrait, catch a rabbit, cook a gourmet meal, grow corn, plan a battle, string a bow, build a shelter, repair an engine, write a poem, ferment grapes, make gunpowder, build a suspension bridge, balance a ledger and negotiate a treaty, change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."
In an early essay published in Virtue of Selfishness on Alienation, psychologist Nathaniel Branden said that the inability to focus on a single career is neurotic. In Ayn Rand's fiction, her heroes typically have consuming passions to be "something" -- Gail Wynand, Howard Roark, Hank Rearden, and the others are all defined by their work. You are what you do. That is the reason why it is also interesting that Ayn Rand's heroes as well as real life Objectivists actually "do" many things.
Howard Roark and Gail Wynand say that when they were young they did all kinds of work. In Atlas, as the world collapses, our heroes take on all kinds of "menial" jobs which they perform expertly -- there are no lousy jobs, just lousy men who won't do them well.
Personally, I never had a passion for a career, so it is not surprising that I never had one. Growing up, I "wanted to be" many things. In school, the career choices offered seemed limited and I was assured that (a) the world is always changing and that (b) a good, general education is the best preparation for (a). Over the years, the one thing I have done most consistently is write. I was first published on the letters page of the Cleveland Plain Dealer when I was 12 -- the editor assumed I was an adult. I took four years of journalism in high school and two more in college -- but I never had a desire to "be" a writer. It is just something I do.
I like to think that I do it well because I work hard at it.
Over the years, I earned a college certificate in transportation management and worked as dispatcher and driver for trucking and taxicab companies. I learned to program computers and worked at that for many years -- but did other work in addition. I have run a wide range of industrial machinery from drill presses to robots. I sanitized a hospital. I unloaded a truck of rocks to put in a public park. I moved into technical writing and continued in that -- again, doing other things as well, such as teaching technical writing and algebra at Lansing Community College. In 2002-2003, living in Albuquerque, I worked a security guard and dispatcher, completing a couple of state law enforcement academy certifications in computer crime investigation and frontline supervision. I was also a substitue teacher and an office temporary. Following that, I earned a real estate license in Michigan. I am a certified numismatist and a certified Toastmaster. I have run for Congress as a Libertarian and last week, I worked the information booths at an Art Fair for the Green Party and for the Republican Party. I can fly an airplane.
Whatever I have done, I have always done it to the best of my ability. I give myself completely to my work -- but like an Ayn Rand hero, I seldom differentiate "work" from "life" or either from "enjoyment."
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