Welcome to rieblog!

paradigm shift on the pot!

[More:]

I am proud to report a recent overhaul in my way of thinking. I believe my new idea brings my hopes and dreams more in line with my way of living. Like most great ideas, this one came to me on the toilet. I was sitting there contemplating the next 18 months or so, where we would go and what we would do. Baiba and I have been considering doing some serious traveling, using the economic downturn to take a break and take advantage of lower prices. We don't want to be just tourists, rather, we want to go to some interesting places to try to discover if we can construct an interesting, efficient life. The question is, what if we don't find what we're looking for? What if we spend a year, and a significant amount of money, and find ourselves back in Latvia teaching English and scraping by?

The idea that hit me was quite simple: instead of looking for a single destination and occupation, why don't I focus on doing something interesting for a shorter period of time? My friends Seattle Bill and Cheryl already operate in a similar fashion, making what they call “five year plans.” How droll! Stalinist reference aside, it makes a lot of sense. First, if I'm only looking for something to do for a short period, the pressure to find my dream job in my dream location is lifted. All we would be doing is finding something worthwhile to do for a short period, so if we get it wrong we can easily start over. Instead of trying to find the end of the rainbow all we need to find is a nice place to nest for a while.

I like to think of these smaller plans as “modules.” They would consist of a place to be, people to be with, and something to do for a few months to a year. I imagine a good module could be expandable if everyone is having a good time. I recently started talking to Peru Dave about one such module. Since he's in South America where it's cheap, why don't we rent a place together to cut costs? Maybe in Buenos Aries? Uruguay, anyone? Of course cheap rent doesn't make an entire module. We need something to do (no English teaching, PLEASE!!), interesting things to see, and places to visit. Right now this module is just an idea, and the details need to come into focus. We could rent a place for a few months, perhaps a whole year, depending on what the opportunities are. After we'd had enough, or when another opportunity presented itself, we would move on.

Of course, we will need some rules around this new “modular” thinking to help guide us in making our lives sustainable. Each module, or plan, needs to meet some of the same criteria that a career path or so -called permanent job. For example, we need access to health insurance and health care. Also, whatever module we cook up needs not only to pay for our daily expenses, but also allow us to save some money for the future. These modules are not vacations. A vacation is a period of time where you have a lot of fun by spending your money. I love vacation, but I'm not in a position to take a permanent one. Modules need to pay for themselves, and to help pay for the future too. I'm quite certain that not all of our modules will meet this criteria, but the ones that don't need to be seen as investments, not modules. These types of investments that don't pay for themselves are sometimes necessary; I used one to airlift myself out of the U.S four years ago. They also need to be few and far between. Declaring myself free of the traditional workaday life does not free me from my financial obligations. Abject poverty is not an alternative lifestyle that I would enjoy experimenting with.

It's probably no accident that my brainstorm on the toilet occurred recently. I think it's a fairly predictable idea given the current state of the world of work. Who among us thinks about a permanent job anymore? The idea of the “golden handshake,” or even of job security, seems ridiculous lately. If we can't enjoy the security that comes with a career, why not embrace the alternative? Each path has advantages. If you work for a large company, for example, odds are you have access to some type of affordable health insurance. If you're thinking modular, finding insurance will be a major problem. If you're living modular, there's much less chance of getting caught in a rut. I would argue, however, that job security is nothing more than an illusion. We are all modular now, only some of us are trying to turn this state of affairs to our advantage.

There's another reason why I think the modular life would work for me. I get bored easily. Even the best job today will seem dull to me in a year or so. Why not make shaking things up part of the schedule. I'm not advocating being reckless. If I'm really enjoying something I'm not going to leave just because the time is up, but my natural tenancy is to seek something new. Making this change in my thinking will not be easy. I have spend much of my adult life trying to imagine a pleasing (and quite possibly unattainable) end point, a wonderful place full of reading, thinking, and pretty girls. Now I have to leave the security of that notion behind, the idea that I may not “end up” anywhere. Giving up this idea makes logical sense but it's also disappointing. I have been trained from an early age to move toward something, to move toward a goal. If I embrace modular thinking, I'm simply moving, and a large reason for living up to this point is gone.

I can take comfort from that fact that modular thinking seems to be more in line with what I wrote in my grading scale. People who get the higher grades tend to be more flexible, able to exploit opportunities as they happen rather than being dogmatic about any particular goal. Of course those people are already naturally talented enough to take advantage of those opportunities as they happen, they even create opportunities all their own. I'm unsure that I'm fit to walk among them, but I think it's worth the risk. The alternative is trying to create a career and security in a world where those commodities appear to be becoming very scarce. So it's time to build a module and plug it in. We'll be reporting from that place as soon as we find it.