Selling out.

We have all got to find something to do for a living and when you get right down to it we only have two choices really: goods or services. Everyone has to sell something to someone else in order to make a living. Lawyers provide legal service, doctors provide medical service, and ministers provide spiritual service. Construction workers provide construction services, educators provide educational services and so on; you get the idea. So while many are selling a service you may not otherwise be able to do or want to provide for yourself, others still are actually selling something tangible you can feel in exchange for your money. As human laborers we really only have two choices as to what type of sales we want to be in, but any way you slice it, we’re all salesman (except maybe fireman, law enforcement and those in the military).

To a certain extent, this can be sort of a letdown. You grow up being told by your parents and in school, you can be anything you want to be. Most of us will spend between twelve and twenty years in pursuit of an occupation and for many the arrival there is not as enjoyable as the journey. Each of us must ultimately ask only one question though with regards to occupation.

Does what we do to make money define who we are as people?

We spend maybe half of our life laboring, but is labor the defining element of who we really are? I’d hope we are more than our jobs, but think about how when you meet someone for the first time how quickly and how pervasive the topic of work is in our conversation and this isn’t to say that there is something wrong with talking about work. But who are we really?

We are so obsessed with doing that we have no time and no imagination left for being. As a result, men are valued not for what they are but for what they do or what they have - for their usefulness. -Thomas Merton

Best Day: January

It's a toss up. Bookends round out the month. January first found me in Taos riding up a chair lift on a day with a high temperature of five degrees. It was biting cold. At one point I had to stop skiing when I started to loose feeling in my toes and fingertips. However I was skiing under otherwise pristine conditions. It had dumped nearly fifteen inches of snow the two days before and Taos is what Taos always is when the conditions are good: great. Ordinarily I would say a day like this would be a lock for a best day.

However last Sunday sort of slipped in and stole the month. The day started early. My wife was running a half marathon and I was charged with getting her an early breakfast and primed for her long run. Ordinarily you won't find me out of bed before 7am. My biorhythms just aren't synced up that early and I typically try to avoid the early mornings. But I wanted to help see her out the door to start her run. She didn't ask for much, a simple breakfast of toast topped with peanut butter, bananas and honey and that was within my culinary capacity, so I obliged and she was off. Next I woke up my boy Fischer, stuffed a pop tart in him and we headed off to stand by my friend Ian and his Bicycles Outback rest stop where they were serving Shiner at thirsty runners. Fischer and I waited there for Kristi to pass by. Making good time she passed by (Fischer cried when she kept running) and we then headed downtown to try and catch her at the finish.

We made it, she finished in under two hours and we had a great time hanging out at the finish line and then headed home. Oh yeah it was like 70 degrees all day too. Later that day I got in an amazing bike ride with two good friends and then fired up my big green egg for some wood fired pizzas and beer with some good friends to round out the day. It was indeed the best day.