Cheap Lance (FDoFD #5)
Recently on X, I watched monkeys go ape-crazy watching a man doing a backflip.
(Who’d’ve fathomed writing such a sentence – or even a contraction like “who’d’ve” – in their adolescence? And if you’re in your adolescence now, stop fathoming and grow up already!)
The monkeys experienced the man with what seemed like gleeful astonishment. Although, truth be told, I’ve never delved as deeply as I oughta into monkey emotionality – so, for all I know, they were just experiencing coincidental dyspepsia. As who amongst us hasn’t?
Anyway, to my non-expert eye (my left, depending on the category), it seemed the monkeys were enjoying seeing one of their relatives pull off a feat they currently couldn’t. They even made some hilarious attempts at it themselves and, failing miserably, seemed to shriek with their mirth (or with, as I mentioned above, their ongoing intestinal distress).
All this to say we can learn from the animals something about not judging failure. Which leads me to something we cannot learn from the animals – that if you are willing to add the word freelance to your life-activity repertoire, you become free to do anything. Because, except for the sticky issue of whether you acquire clients who will actually pay you, anything you would call yourself after “freelance” would be true.
For example, here are some of my recent successful freelance failures:
•Freelance Candy Flavorer – had high hopes for this one, but retired soon after receiving a confectioner-who-shall-remain-unnamed-for-legal-reasons’s cease-and-desist letter related to my persistent attempts to promote my idea for their possible new line of roll candy – LifeSavories. Still baffling to me! There’s virtually no one else in the entire marketplace offering hard-candy lozenges in flavors like broccoli, hot mustard, or pickle brine.
•Freelance Branding Consultant – had high hopes for this one, but had to give up quickly as potential clients’ pets kept freaking out when I brought in my sample branding irons.
•Freelance Abacus Repair – had high hopes for this one, but . . .
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The best place you can ever be is HERE and NOW.
The only place you can ever be is HERE and NOW.
There is no Point B!