Some things are too long for a tweet, to short for a short-form essay. I like to think of them like “macro-tweets.” Some have taken to posting paragraphs or even whole positions on twitter in the form of:
1/7
2/7
And so on. That’s an abuse of the platform. Longer-form should be somewhere else.
End preamble.
* * *
So Maria and I have abandoned swimming for the moment. I don’t know why exactly, aside from we don’t have an indoor pool membership and the outdoor pool we have is rather….variable…with regard to temperature. I went to swim about 400m with an air temp of 48 degrees back in September, and part of my body just went: “You’re nucking futs, dude.”
In lieu of that, Maria and I are walking every morning. Typically a one-mile circuit right outside our front door. In the back of my mind, I hope we’ll graduate to jogging, but for now I’m simply enjoying the time with my daughter.
We talk about many things, some mundane, some profound. It’s a simple human pleasure to talk to your family in a idle, relational way. Being present in a moment is a struggle for me.
So, on our morning walks I had one of those things I call a “snap-back” moment. I define that as “Being wholly present in a moment with the benefit of perspective.” I’ve had a few of these in my life, usually preceded by, “Holy shit!”
- Holy shit! I’m in college!
- Holy shit! I’m married!
- Holy shit! I’m a dad!
Today’s “Holy shit!” moment was, “Holy shit! I live in Texas!”
It’s been a year, well a bit more. My old company putting itself up for sale….the announcement of a voluntary exit program…the snap decision to leave that’d been coming for 7 years…unemployment…self-imposed exile in my own house…flying all over the country to find a job…selling the house…leaving our son behind….moving.
It’s all unreal somehow, like some sort of dream. Any moment, I expect to wake-up and go back to work at the only real employer I’d ever had.
Holy shit. I live in Texas.