The young need the old. They need the perspectives, insight and viewpoints that are disappearing. Today’s generation is the saddest, most pathetic group of young people the world has produced in over a century.

They are drugged, indoctrinated and have no communication skills. They have youth, but it is an isolated, sad, wasted youth and they don’t create real memories only experience computer games and social media timelines.

Life is about balance. The older one gets the further one removes oneself from the young and eventually we die – to become young again, starting the cycle anew.

Finding that balance keeps one young. One doesn’t have to immerse oneself in today’s trends, but one can marvel at energy as it regenerates and recreates different takes on the same thing.

It’s all perception ad perspective. The many universes within our multiverse each have value and it’s never too late to leave our comfort zone and try living in some of those we have avoided.

Good luck!

But the truth is that I lack the motivation. I simply do not get my jollies that way any more, at least not enough to pursue it systematically. I know perfectly well that if this forum goes down, for any reason, or even if my internet connection goes away for any reason, my writing days are over.

I know if my antique and underpowered computer craps out, I have no plans whatsoever to replace it. I may have to change my mind in the future, since the net has become such an indispensable utility (I even broke down and got a basic cell phone a few years back, I was forced to for business reasons.) But in general, I simply am not interested in “keeping up”. I do not look forward to learning a new operating system. I loathe the very idea of having to do so just so I can pay my bills or talk to my friends. The Zone is my last contact with the external world, other than broadcast network news and PBS. And although I enjoy the Zone and the net, I feel no need to perpetuate or replace them if either should die a natural death.

There is an entire universe inside me I have been neglecting, mostly because of the distractions bombarding me through the ether. I have been spending a lot of time there lately, and I am amazed at what I have been missing. I am exploring my own mind, my own memories, my own history. I’m seeing connections and forces I’d missed while I was actually living those experiences. And I’m revising, or filling out, many of my old prejudices. I am gradually coming to understand myself, and my place in the cosmos. Or perhaps I should say, all the different overlapping and often contradictory universes I simultaneously inhabit. One of the most colossal insights I have achieved so far is that there is more than one, they are separate, but connected. There are an infinite number of nested universes, even in my tiny, limited multiverse.

Maybe I’m withdrawing, become a hermit, drawing the world in around me. Or maybe I’m just starting to see things clearly and distinctly for the first time. I read few new books any more, or see new movies, or listen to new music. I prefer stuff I’m already familiar with. I don’t totally ignore new things, I just don’t breathlessly pursue the latest fashion like I used to. I can see now most of it is still the same old rehash, not much really new under the sun. Only science seems to be going anywhere, but I can no longer follow it, my educational background isn’t deep enough to allow me to keep up with the latest developments, except at the shallowest Sunday supplement, supermarket tabloid level. Dark Matter and Energy, cosmic inflation, the genetic chemistry of the cellular nucleus and protein metabolism, all that is gibberish anymore. I just don’t have the math to keep up. I used to think the world could be fully described by systems of differential equations. Now I know I was dead wrong. I wasn’t even close.

Re-reading these remarks, I can see how they might be interpreted as self-limiting, sad, even pathetic. An old man withdrawing into himself, giving up the world, and giving up on it. And you know what? I don’t care.
I’m entitled to operate my brain as I see fit, and not to have to make excuses to anyone else.

As Bob Dylan once wrote; “I’d rather design harmonica holders than discuss Aztec anthropology.” For the first time in my life, I understand exactly what he means.

You don’t HAVE to make a living at it. You can do it for fun. Maybe start a personal blog. You don’t have to write for magazines nowadays, just pop it out there and it’s all over the world.

WordPress for blogging is a lot easier than WordPress for forums.

At least you’re lucky that your contract work is in an area where you not only have technical expertise but great personal interest. You do know its only a matter of time before the job is credentialed out of existence, and only those with an MA in graphical design of spacecraft (or book formatting) will be able to get a meaningful job. That’s what happened in my field of Geographic Information Systems. Of course, you can come in to the profession through the side or back door, and you’ll be able to get a job, but the big bucks and responsible slots are reserved for those with the sheepskins. I know I couldn’t start now in my own field if I tried today. They hire people already trained to do the work, not people qualified through prior experience to teach themselves from scratch how to do it like when I got started. My graduate degree was in Geography, and I earned it before GIS was invented.

Still, luck and time work both ways. At least you can say you’ve worked in a field you like and you’re good at. Most people can’t say that, and they live lives of quiet desperation. I’ve been lucky that way too, and in the past I was able to use my knowledge and interests to fill a temporary gap in industry’s requirements. Like my friend Roger, who has a similar background and history to mine says, “We just hit the sweet spot”.

I congratulate you on your writing career. As you know, I dabbled in the field for a while too, and its a lot of fun, but earning your living that way is a lot of hard work, and I’m basically lazy. (I think the modern, more politically correct term is “burned out”.) I couldn’t make any real money writing about boating and wildlife, and once I proved I could do it I felt no need to continue. I honestly don’t have any BIG IDEAS screaming to become the Great American Novel. I suppose I could write mysteries or cheap Sci-Fi or ghost stories, but that would strictly be for the money, and I don’t need any (not that being a novice writer has any guarantee of great financial rewards).

As for the boating, I learned that there are some things just out of reach, and perhaps that is all for the best. Sailing is an expensive, time consuming hobby that very few people have succeeded to leverage into a money-making enterprise. If my wife had been as enthusiastic about it as I was, we might have gone into it together, but as it was, I could tell she was always scared and uncomfortable when we were “out there”, even though she never said so. I really had no right to force her into that discipline. Besides, I’ve been there before.

When I was in college, I used to be in love with sports car racing. I was a pretty active competitor in club events, such as rallys, gymkhanas and autocrosses. I had some talent at it, but I realized to make a success at it, I had to offer up more of my life and resources than I was willing to give up. Earning a living, and taking care of the people you care for takes top priority. Something has to be cut, and I have no regrets. You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometime, you just might find, you get what you need. I’ve made my peace with that.

Renting a boat is not the same as sailing your own. Its like spending the night with a high-priced hooker, or borrowing a Lotus for the afternoon. It might be fun, but it doesn’t really count.

There’s a lot I set out to do I never got around to. Some of it was because I just didn’t have the moxie to pull it off in the first place. Some of it was because I never got the breaks. And some of it was because I just got stoned and I missed it. But over all, I’m pretty happy with what I’ve accomplished, and proud of how I played the hand I was dealt.

And of course, there are a few things I did I’m really ashamed of and truly sorry for. But at least, I know perfectly well what they are, and I don’t make any excuses about them. I’m gonna carry that weight a long time.

I work at home, online, so I have a lot of the advantages of a retired person, but contract work is irregular at best. In the metaphor of the “goose hanging high,” my goose’s trajectory looks like a theme park roller coaster.

I’m fortunate right now to be working on a new rocket engine, a project that will hold out as long as the investment money does for the startup rocket company I’m working with. Wish I could post shiny pictures. Solidworks is a lot of fun to use.

Sometimes I wonder where I’d be right now if I’d come out of college to a world full of enthusiastic rocket companies, instead of one where there weren’t any, and even NASA was mired between the end of Apollo and the beginning of Shuttle.

I also bring in a bit of pin money formatting books for small publishers, again working at home on my computer.

I’m still writing fiction of my own for young people. My first book was self-published a few years ago, and sales are less than spectacular. I have a middle-grade fantasy coming out from an actual small publisher soon, and maybe that will sell a bit better. The publisher put “Book 1″ on the cover, which is both encouraging and a bit frightening since I don’t actually have a “Book 2″ yet. I have a third book done, on a completely different subject, but it’s just sitting there for now. Thinking about doing that one myself again, but I’d have to be a lot more savvy about marketing.

My wife is retired now, sooner than she wanted to be due to health, and with a certain element of “slid out the door” involved. That’s another story. Another advantage of working at home is that I’m there for her. She’s doing well, especially since we put a stair lift in. Due to the twisty stairs, the lift is practically a theme park roller coaster on its own. Our main problem is finding a doctor of Pharmacy things that will still keep her brain active.

I still think you should be writing for publication. You put some good stuff up here, for only a handful of people. It should be out there in the wider world. It’s like watching Roy Hobbs burning pitches on the family farm, and finding out he has no interest in playing baseball professionally.

By the way, can’t you rent boats?