For the first two months of my Year Off, beginning in February, I felt pretty illegitimate. I didn't do much of anything. I told people I was letting my mind empty out, which was true. But I still felt a bit guilty not going to my job at a political organization every day.
I later realized that the problem was that I did not have an operative rationalization, a reason for doing the things that one does all day. Common work-related rationalizations include: I work to make money to pay my bills. I work to make money to buy status symbols. I work now so that someday I can retire and do the things I really want to do. For me, my rationalization was I work in politics because I want to affect the outcome of events.
Our trip to New Zealand in April was good because it was a 24-hour-a-day project and possessed its own rationalization: See things.
Then, in June, right about the time I began to really embrace my free time, I was delivered of a new rationalization to keep me going as a non-member of the labor force:
Politics is too important to be done as a career.
This was my Rationalization of the Month for June, and it looks to be holding strong for July.
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