Edwin's Corner

  THE LIFE YOU WERE TOLD TO WANT A Two-Part Story About Freedom, Significance and Identity George could not stop thinking about the question. What if I tried to become somebody I actually enjoy being? Not look like somebody. Not impress somebody. Not prove anything. Become somebody. There was a difference. For most of his life, whenever George felt inadequate, he knew exactly what to do. Achieve. Buy. Provide. Upgrade. Make more. It had worked remarkably well until it didn’t. Now he wanted to experiment. Not on his business. Not on his family. On himself. The 100-Day Experiment George remembered the boy he had once been. Before the money. Before the cars. Before the expectations. Before success became his identity, when his father was too drunk to fix something around the house, George learned to fix it. He learned carpentry from an uncle down the road. He watched an electrician work around the village until the man eventually let him help. He learned farming. By twelve, George cou...

THE LIFE YOU WERE TOLD TO WANT   A Two-Part Story About Freedom, Significance and Identity Sometimes the life you desperately want to escape is not the real prison. “We are inherently flawed,” said the man on the pulpit. George opened one eye. Then the other. He sat at the back of a church near his home, wondering whether the preacher was speaking about humanity at large or had somehow received George’s file that morning. If it was the latter, George thought, the man was understating the situation. George had been through a very hard time. Peace had disappeared from his life so completely that he suspected it had changed its number. The previous night had involved too much alcohol, too little sleep, and several decisions that probably made more sense at midnight than they did now. Most Sundays were fairly predictable. Watch a movie. Recover from Saturday. Meet the boys later. Have a few drinks. Promise himself that next weekend would be different. Repeat. Church had never play...