Cameraderie
It’s been a long time since writing my last post, and a lot has happened during the lapse. Two months ago, I was living in Whistler and preparing to leave it for good, after 19 long years. I can hardly believe it, that time just raced by. Funny to think, I lived there longer than anyplace ever before, and it is likely that I will never live in any one place as long again.
Actually this has been a very strange and busy year, turning 50 in May - then - my father died suddenly - my motorcycle was stolen - I gave my notice on my apartment - I shut down my business which had lasted almost 15 years - I got in a fight with a partner over my kiosk business and left without my assets - and I moved permanently in with my mother - in the town I grew up in - in the house I grew up in. Weird.
Did I mention that I have no career and no real career plan?
It’s funny how events unfold. A month ago, I made a friend, Dave. Before long, I was asking my friend if I could come and help him in his log stair and rail business. He welcomed me to the world of unskilled manual labor with a warning: be prepared for some shit’n'abuse!
For a couple weeks now, I’ve been casually heading over to Dave’s place after a leisurely breakfast with Mum. I usually arrive around 11am, whereupon Dave and I set up our laptops and pretend to work on our projects. It’s a lot of fun, and we do seem to actually get a bit of work done, after exhausting all possible procrastination ploys.
Then it’s over to the workshed to peel some logs, while Dave drills holes in the freshly peeled logs. It’s a strangely satisfying thing to do, peeling logs. I’d put it in the same category as chopping wood. There’s something about transforming something into something else, even if it is only by taking it’s skin off. The other thing is, it’s a bit of a workout at the same time, I usually am stripped down to a t-shirt in five minutes.
But the part that I am really enjoying is the camaraderie with Dave. It’s been a very long time since I worked with other people around. I’ve been in the alone world of computers a long time. It’s hard to explain… but even though I had social interaction with my clients as I worked on their computers, ultimately it was a bit of a lonely game. It’s not that I wasn’t thankful to have the kind of income I was able to generate in a small amount of time, because I was thankful. It’s just that I was unable, ultimately, to accept that this is what I will do forever. It would have been a slow and torturous death.
Now, outside the madness that Whistler has become, I am spending my afternoons in the crisp autumn air, in a beautiful forested area, working with raw timber. I’ve even been using a chainsaw - Woo Hoo! Tim the toolman! And right there is the boss, my friend Dave, handing out his shit and abuse. The beauty of it is, I hand it directly back with the abuse turned up even louder. That’s how I know we’re friends.
So there it is - another simple truth that is so basic and fundamental. Cameraderie and fellowship are important to a person’s sense of well-being. Humans are social, and I am social. And I am enjoying the Camaraderie of working with Dave. He tells me he likes it too.
Incidentally, I’ve been helping Dave with his blog, MidlifeQuest.ca, and even though it’s still really new it’s already got some interesting content. Dave’s telling the world! Check it out here.
