One true thing

The latest Zen Pencils webcomic illustrates a commencement speech delivered by Calvin & Hobbes creator Bill Watterson. You should go read it and then come back for my little rant below.

I agree, to the tune of approximately 14,000%, with what Watterson says here. On so many levels.

Now… I have yet to figure out how to consistently make a living at the whole doing-what-I-love-instead-of-doing-what-everyone-else-expects-me-to-do thing… but I’m working on that part, really hard, despite a long line of folks waiting around to tell me it’s not working because it doesn’t involve turning a wrench or holding down a 9-to-5. (I’ve given them all numbers on little pieces of paper and – here’s the sneaky bit – I’ve stopped calling out new numbers.)

I’ve pretty much wrecked any career momentum that I ever built up by staying home to raise my son. What all of the “stay-at-home dads are becoming the new thing!” fluff pieces do not tell you is that any attempt to rejoin the working world is met with barely-polite laughter (“what, you stayed home with the kid instead of demanding that your wife do that and make you a sammich when you get home from work?”) and a lot of rejection letters. But I wouldn’t trade the years I’ve spent with my son for the world.

He’s the only five-year-old I know who can tell you what bioluminescence is. He’ll happily sing you a song about the planets of the solar system. He’s pretty good at feeding kitties too. And every once in a while he minds his daddy. Heck, I may even be close to getting him to take this whole “thinking before acting/speaking” business to heart.

And anyone who doesn’t think that the road to that point – from the days of bottle feedings and changing diapers all the way up to bedtime stories and bite-sized science lessons – is real work… is far too accustomed to a job that ends at five o’clock on the button.

Here endeth the rant.