Your Unemployed Daughter

photo credit: nffcnnr

I stumbled upon this story in the NYT today while scanning the headlines pre-yoga. Since I too have been dubbed middle-aged (though with less impact given the 25 hopefully good years before I reach the age of 58), I read it. And my heart goes out to this fellow.

I am sure it must be much, much harder to be 58 and unemployed than, say, 33 or 22 and without a job. Like our feelin-sorry-for-hisself 31-year-old employed editor from the Gawker piece, Michael Blattman is also “at a professional dead end”—but without the nimbleness or freedom from the burden of alimony that comes with comparative youth.

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photo credit: Jeremy Brooks

Here’s an interesting piece, on Gawker today, about the fate of those print journalism types who haven’t been laid off. And while I don’t think it’s as dire as all that—things change, and people need (after their fair share of wallowing boozily, semi-conscious in private miseries) to hop on board and adapt or just go ahead and retire—it’s telling.

Who has it better? Maybe it’s actually us unemployeds.

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photo credit: digital_monkey

You know how yesterday I was all moans and groans about my freelance gig for the next two weeks? All, Woe to the weary freelancer! So tiring, being in an office all day long! So hard to fit in your blogging, your workouts, and your social time! How do the employed do it?

It does take some getting used to. I am working on a theory about this, but I think it’s because it’s unnatural. People were not meant to sit in tall, heavily air-conditioned buildings staring at computer screens and reading Gawker all day long, listening to loud, plummy-voiced fellows talking about how to get relationship dish from underaged, inexperienced actors at film screenings. People were meant to be active, and enjoy life, and make a difference—do something good for themselves, and each other.

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