Community...

For a long time, I worshipped the twin deities of technology and money, and thought that if I could accumulate enough of both I would find happiness. Instead, I found emptiness and despair. After years of painful lessons, I discovered that while both technology and money can be very useful, neither of them has much meaning for me unless they are serving humanity in some way. Armed with this new knowledge, I ditched the high-paying-but-soul-sucking technology-sector job I'd held for seventeen years and set out to find something that "felt right". It was scary as hell, and I went through several very bad weeks of beating myself up for doing something so "stupid".

Po Bronson's wonderful book, "What Should I Do With My Life?" was one of the things that kept me going while I worked through all of the doubt and fear and guilt that followed my decision. As he says, "Failure's hard, but success is far more dangerous. If you're successful at the wrong thing, the mix of praise and money and opportunity can lock you in forever." Thanks, Po!

Maybe it was karma, or maybe it was the gentle but persistent prodding of my wonderful partner Chris, but I ended up volunteering at Lincoln Action Program, a local non-profit organization dedicated to helping low-income people get their lives in order and develop the skills they need to support themselves. I work in their computer shop, repairing and refurbishing donated personal computers which are then given to the clients who attend the free computer classes LAP offers. After a week or so working as a volunteer and loving it, I applied and was hired to manage the computer shop. I'm making about 1/4 of the salary paid by my previous position, but now I'm happy in a way I haven't been for years. I get to harness technology to help real people with real-world needs and I get to work with a wonderfully diverse group of people from all over the world, like Moses (from Somalia), Dimitri (from Russia), and Binh (from Vietnam). I love meeting and learning about people from other parts of the world, and since my old job was like working in a big loaf of "Wonder Bread" (all white, without much real substance), this was another very welcome change.

I am also a "Big" with Big Brothers/Big Sisters, and generally spend several hours each week with my "Little", Matt (and of course, Josh and Nick, my "unofficial" little brothers) doing something fun and/or educational. Matt discovered a great love for bowling, and as a result I've spent more hours sitting in grungy bowling alleys around Nebraska than I care to think about, but he really enjoys it, and I like to be there for him.

[æ]