Freedom From and Freedom To

Seven years is a long time to hold a job, especially in technology. My titles and employers changed a few times during that stretch, but the job stayed the same: documenting software. Sometimes this got very interesting. Most of the time it was not so.

So, when the corporate bosses announced my termination at the close of 2006, I genuinely rejoiced. In the course of my technology career I have seen, enviously, a few good friends and colleagues get cut loose with lovely severance packages and transition deals. Now I have a layoff of my own! For a couple of weeks now I have been completely free from the need to go to the office, to check mail, to try and understand bug reports or attend dreadful meetings (and at least for the moment, I'm still getting paid).

However, I know from Nietzsche that freedom from anything is "negative freedom". It's the freedom of a slave who, suddenly freed, probably has nothing he really wants to do except not do what he had been doing before. The truer, better freedom is the freedom to do something. And fortunately I do have something to throw my energy into and fill with meaning and importance in this dark existential void we all live in: go fishing.

And write about fishing, and plan fishing, and paddle different kinds of kayaks to go fishing, and take pictures of fish, and take breaks from fishing in order to return to fishing. "Gone Fishing" is the hackneyed sign to post on the door of your old office, but in my case fishing is a highly positive mode of freedom, and I hope in this blog to make a decent case for why fishing might be a worthwhile main pursuit for an unemployed , unattached American male closing in on 40.

First stop, Nicaragua. I'll get on a plane tonight and potentially post some bloggish responses to being in Granada tomorrow, though the actual ETFO (Estimated Time of Fish On) will be sometime next Friday night. Imagining a wacky-looking guapote swimming up to the side of my kayak makes me think 2007 is going to be a Happy New Year.