Seekers: And Now For Something Completely Different

This is it. My oldest daughter will be starting her senior year of high school in a couple of days. My youngest just got her driving learner's permit. It is about to get real. Changes are underfoot.

I have never been one to shy away from change. I have been a soldier, a professional photographer, an actress, an elections lawyer, a master gardener, a website developer, a writer, a Chinese brush painter, a gym rat, a circus arts addict, a music and theatre arts promoter, an editor. I usually find myself heading in a completely different direction, reinventing myself before I make it to about the seven year mark, at most, of any endeavor. I guess this makes me sort of a modern-day renaissance woman.

I have joked for years with my husband that he has survived my seven-year-itch affliction several times over. I'm not sure if that is something he actually appreciates or has simply endured. I realize that my life is a bit meandering. Being his wife and mother to our two girls have really been the only things in my entire life so far that I haven't eventually become disenchanted with and walked away.

As a child I recall being asked what I wanted to be when I grew up. I always hated that question. As if I must choose one thing and be saddled with it for a lifetime. That to me sounded like hell - Sisyphus forever pushing that boulder up the hill, the Death of a Salesman. Even as an adult, one all too often gets the question, "what do you do?" An equally loathsome question for those of us who are always moving forward, looking for the next opening, doing and creating on multiple fronts, both simultaneously and linearly, forever seeking to find the things that will sustain us until we find something else new and exciting.

We are increasingly living in a time that values the expert, the specialist, and to be such requires that one focus on a single subject or discipline. Otherwise one risks the label of an amateur, dabbler, dilettante, dallier, or jack-of-all trades/master of none, which I have learned to wear as a badge of honor. Often, though, such labels leave us feeling confused or ashamed for simply being our true, authentic, multi-dimensional selves. Honestly, humans were not meant to do the same thing for a lifetime; that is what robots are for. As humans, we are meant to be explorers, to experience, to be Seekers. 

Seekers make way for possibility and invention. Seekers see things in a very different way than others do and can often find solutions that elude most. Seekers can actually be quite successful. Here are a few wonderful examples of Seekers in history and the present: Ben Franklin was a politician, writer, musician, scientist and inventor.  Leonardo DaVinci was an inventor, painter, philosopher, poet, architect, engineer, physician, writer, stage designer, theologist, astronomer, actor, singer, and yes, even a court jester. Arnold Schwarzenegger has reinvented himself as a bodybuilder, actor, producer, author, philanthropist, activist, politician, investor and businessman. Temple Grandin, a remarkable modern-day renaissance woman, is a scientist, professor, activist (for autism, animal rights, and food safety), author, inventor, and motivational speaker. Not bad company to be in.  

My oldest daughter doesn't know what she wants to study in college, so right now she is having trouble figuring out where she wants to go. I am having trouble getting through to her that few people do know and that is okay. I want her to be a Seeker. I want her to have diverse experiences and live a life of learning and searching for that next something that will make her happy and challenge her, whether that is in a lifelong pursuit or just for seven years or less at a time.