Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    

Josh, do you think of yourself as an escape artist?

Also, even if you are doing your dream job, chances are you have
sometimes fantasized about a different career path. What other path
would you like to explore?   
  

    
<<Have you followed up with him? For that matter, have you continued
to
follow any or all of the people you profiled in "The Escape Artists"?
Have any of their stories changed significantly since you wrote about
them?>>

I got an email from Rich not long ago. He seems a bit worried that the
prop making/replica business is petering out. Not sure how much movie
work he's doing now. 

Re: the others, most of them are still happily living their
escapes--with the exception of Chuck, who's out of professional
baseball  (as a player, anyway).

<<Josh, do you think of yourself as an escape artist?

Also, even if you are doing your dream job, chances are you have
sometimes fantasized about a different career path. What other path
would you like to explore? >>

Yes, absolutely I do. If there's one thing I'd like to be doing but am
not doing (or haven't done) so far, it's publishing more fiction. But
I just wrote my first novel, which my agent is trying to sell right
now. So far a few nice rejections but no bites! Some might contend that
my humor books are fiction--and I suppose they are in some ways--but
I'm speaking more of narrative fiction here. I'd also like to write for
television, but it's hard to do that and not live in L.A.  Lived there
once, hated it, don't want to go back. 
  

    
A magazine assignment put me in touch with four winemakers in
Washington state who all come from somewhat unusual backgrounds for
wine. The wine industry in Washington, particularly eastern Washington,
is still young and entrepreneurial, and one needn't follow one of the
traditional paths for a wine career -- family legacy, wealth or
education -- in order to succeed there. I interviewed a guy who'd had a
cubicle job in Nordstrom's marketing department, a guy who'd been an
LA cop and attorney, a guy who'd been a videotape editor for CNN and a
guy from New York City who'd followed his love for music to Seattle in
the grunge years. 

The note in all of their stories that rang in the same tone is that
all of them had a moment when they asked themselves, "What the hell am
I doing with my life?" and decided then and there to follow their
passion into wine. In a couple of cases, they knew just about nothing
about the wine business before they made the leap. For the
cop/attorney, that moment arrived in the middle of stopped traffic on
the San Diego Freeway; for the CNN guy, it happened after he'd read an
article in the NY Times about the wines of Walla Walla. 

It made me think about how discontent can build up quietly and even
unconsciously in a person to a tipping point. But then, to decide to
change your life after asking yourself what's wrong with it may require
a kind of predisposition. 
  

    <scribbled>
  

    
ok, i'm not the host here but, Scott, this is a publicly-viewable conference
and it is not appropriate to port material from other conferences here.

feel free to correct me if i'm off base here, hosts.
  

    
You're probably right, Aud.  I scribbled some comments that seemed
apropos to this discussion.  If you'd like to read them, join The Well
and read the conference Spirit #283. :=) 
  

    
Spirit #284, actually.
  

    
Scott, can you paraphrase those comments without crossing the
YOYOW/copyright line? As <aud> points out, the discussion here is
viewable outside the Well -- but if the comments are relevant to the
discussion, I'd think some off-Well readers (on-Well, too) may be very
interested in the gist of them.
  

    
Steve, I asked the person who wrote those posts to post them here,
too, if she chooses.  Didn't know I was YOYOWing--not sure what that
means--but I'm not going to paraphrase her own story either. Thx. 
  

    <scribbled by lrph>
  

    
Seems this post has been removed, so I don't know what the
comment/question was. But in terms of the career epiphany experienced
by the winemakers, yes, I think this type of realization is more common
than we might think. Many educated Americans come out of college with
major debt, and are forced (of that's the right word) to seek a job
that will have them making lots of money right away to repay it--and
escapist jobs don't always--or often--fit this bill. Thus, when people
hit mid-career they may find that they have the financial wherewithal
to try something else. 

That's not to say they've become rich, but simply that their career
decisions are informed by things other than money.
  

    
Josh, the "mid-life crisis" is typically ascribed to men, but in your
research did you find that women just as equally experienced those
what-am-I-doing-with-my-life moments that pushed them into being escape
artists? And what about differences in culture/ethnicities? One of
your profiles covers a Korean-American comedian, another a
Chinese-American physician, but there are no African-Americans or
Hispanics profiled (I assume Steve Smith is white). 
  

    
There are no statistics on who becomes an escape artist--mostly since
I coined the phrase as it applied to careers. But, as my earlier post
indicated educated women, as much or more so than men, view their
careers as "non-linear" and are likely to leave the workforce at some
point--and not just to have children.

True, there are no Hispanics or African-Americans profiled, though
this was simply a function of my not encountering any within my chosen
areas of study whose stories I felt were interesting enough to include.
But I don't see why escapism would be limited by race, gender, color,
or creed. Following your passion strikes me as something universal. The
subjects in the books are of different genders, ages, races, and
educational backgrounds, and they all had this desire, so why shouldn't
others?
  

    

Josh, did do encounter many Escape Artists who had made a radical career
change while they were partnered and had young children to support? 

And even if there weren't children involved, how did spouses respond to
partners who were throwing away secure jobs to chase rainbows that might
or might not have pots of gold at the other end? 
  

    
Yes, I did encounter such spouses. Most were supportive because they
knew whom they were marrying at the outset.

That said, some (especially Aileen, Jack-the-surfer's spouse)
eventually had to demand some adjustments in order to make family life
work in conjunction with escapism. And sometimes this meant scaling
back one's passions, even just a little. This was the case with Mark
Divine, who realized that being in the Navy SEALs isn't exactly
conducive to married life, and family life.

In one case, of course (Rick Coyle), the escape led to a divorce, and
eventual estrangement from children. 
  

    
"to make family life work in conjunction with escapism"

Josh, I like the term "escape artist" when it refers to indivuals
moving beyond living life as cogs in the system and finding work for
themselves that is filled with more passion.  However, I think this use
of the term is where your metaphor breaks down. 

When you refer to the life work of your subjects as "escapism", there
is a negative value judgment to the chosen path.  This is related to
the idea of responsibility, and who gets to decide which paths are more
responsible.  Certainly, we all juggle obligations to ourselves, our
partners, our immediate and extended family, our community, our
governments, our earth, but it is too simplistic to suggest that people
are "escapist" who find innovative, spiritually transcendent, or
exciting work that does not fit the "norm".  The paradox for many who
risk their dreams is that such life work is closer to life play, and
that such "escape" leads to greater fulfillment, and a balance in life
that engenders better relationships.  Who is to say when "escape" is a
healthier or unhealthier engagement with life?   
  

    

Thanks for the details, Josh. "...they knew whom they were marrying at the
outset" makes sense. It's good to be matched with a partner who shares one's
level of risk tolerance.

Thanks, also, for joining us for these past two weeks, Steve and Josh. This
has been quite an interesting conversation! I really admire people who are
willing to pursue their dreams. It must have been such an interesting
writing project to research.

Though our virtual spotlight has turned to a new interview, this doesn't
mean this conversation has to stop. The topic will remain open for further
comments and questions indefinitely, so feel free to stick around if you
can.

If other things are demanding your attention now, I wish you all the
best in seeing your first novel published, Josh. Good luck!
  

    
(Scott slipped in while I was composing my post!)

I hope you'll at least have the time to comment on what Scott posted, Josh.
  

    
Josh, thank you for an informative, fascinating interview. 
  

    
Yes, thank you.
  

    
Thanks all, esp. Steve and Cynthia who made it happen!

Re: Scott's comments:

<<When you refer to the life work of your subjects as "escapism",
there
is a negative value judgment to the chosen path.>>

Scott, again I'm not sure what you mean. Who's making a negative value
judgment? I'm certainly not. I coined the term as it applies to career
choices because it suggests that people are choosing to follow
something they are passionate about and thus figuratively "escape" from
a life more ordinary, to do something they feel is extraordinary, or
purposeful, or both. They are "escaping" to a more fulfilling
destination. Many of the subjects described working in an office as
equivalent to being in a type of prison. I don't suggest that this is
the case for most, or even many people. Bu it is the case for some. You
need not get hung up on the term, however.  It's just a descriptive
phrase, a term of art, nothing more. 

<<it is too simplistic to suggest that people
are "escapist" who find innovative, spiritually transcendent, or
exciting work that does not fit the "norm". >>

Why? What's wrong with suggesting this? Replace "escapist" with
"fulfilled" and I don't see the problem.

<<Who is to say when "escape" is a
healthier or unhealthier engagement with life? >>

The people who experience it, that's who. They make the determination.
And that's the point. They are engaged on a level that is atypical of
the workaday world, and they like it that way. I'm not sure I
understand your argument with that. Or perhaps I am misreading what you
wrote.

Gotta run, hope to be back to continue this conversation . . . 
  

    
Josh, my point is that the term "escape artist," as used by you, is a
clever image to expand how we look at the "Hoodini-esque" way this term
is used by most people.  However, when you link this metaphor to the
term "escapism" you conjure up a negative connotation in terms of how
that term is commonly applied--namely, people who are unable to cope
with "normal" life and thereby use drugs, adrenalin sports, books,
religious or psychological denial, etc. to "escape."  My point is that
by using the word "escapism," your apt metaphor for individuals
choosing "alternative", personally fulfulling, out-of-the-ordinary life
work begins to fall apart.

In any event, thank you for participating in Inkwell, and good luck
with your writing.  
  

    
Houdini? (sp)