Head Tale

I realised that our social calendars this holiday season were as full as they’ve been in years due to a little miracle called “Pace Gets His Home Alone & Babysitting Certification”.

So compared to other years where we had the hassle and expense of lining up babysitters if we wanted to go out, this year, we had a built-in babysitter that meant we got to (almost) every party we were invited to – from early December to New Year’s Eve, whether they were kid-friendly or not.

I had a few memorable conversations and recurring themes during the various parties that I wanted to capture:

• What makes someone successful?  Their job title?  Their salary?  The size of their house?  How many countries they’ve been to?  If they enjoy their work?  If they enjoy their family?  If they have a successful marriage?  If they have a kid? Kids?  Professional accomplishments?  Public profile?  Some combination of all of the above?  Some of the above?  Or does it depend on the person???
• Related topic that came up, especially at parties with people I knew from high school and university – now that we’re all basically middle-aged, where we are in our lives – who ended up where you expected, who ended up somewhere completely different, who became (conventionally) successful, who struggled for whatever reason, who surprised us.
• The peripheral trauma experienced by people who work in certain professions – directly in mental health most obviously to healthcare more generally to law to education and yes, librarianship as well.
• Unsurprisingly, knowing Shea and I, we engaged in a wide range of political conversations with everything from some the most radical (er, meaning “cool”) people we know to outright climate change deniers.  Fun times.